The Day was Bright
by Papaver Somniferum
Summary: Henrietta Ingus Willow's beginning adventures as she starts classes at the Mage Academy! With her friends; the heiress of the Wilde family Victoria Belle, and George a mysterious guy from Schwartzwalt Republic they learn friendship. This increasingly dynamic trio will come to terms with companionship and learn the dark secret surrounding the monster outbreak deep within Mt. Mjolnir
1. Chapter 1

The day was bright.

She had woken up the second night full of longing for her home. She had just moved to the great City of Magic, Geffen. It was a long and arduous trip, traveling across insect infested fields, wild beasts that barred their teeth. Her family spent all they could to send her to the Mage Academy, the school of her dreams. She was sixteen-years-old and was from a relatively poor family in the suburbs of Prontera. Her father was a construction worker, and helped build the foundations of newly built houses in the satalite city of Izlude. It wasn't very farm from Prontera, but because his work required his presence at all times, she rarely got to see him. Her mother was a barista at a local pub, and her two older brothers were training at the Swordsman Guild in Izlude with their father. She spent most of her young life living in the alleys of Prontera. She had passed her basic knowledge exams quite young and was released as they say, "competent" and had worked for a few months at a flower shop that was owned by her best friend's family. Her best friend was named Julia and was from an aristocratic family of the name Valentines. Julia was also very smart and had been given a scholarship to study at the Merchant School in Alberta. When Henrietta heard about the news she cried nearly for a week, before she could be happy for Julia. Julia's family owned a lot of businesses in Prontera and Izlude, and she was the heir to her father's company's name. She had a lot on her shoulders. She decided quite young that since the death of her mother when she was a young girl that she would uphold the company's name and standards for as long as she could breath. She left to Alberta two months ago. Henrietta had just enrolled at the Mage Academy and was given the keys to her lodgings, a nearby pub with a hotel above it. She lay on the thick heavy mattress with her clothes still shut tight in her luggage. Today was the first day on her own, her parents started their travels back to Prontera the morning before, and would reach it by the following week. She cried.

Classes began with a loud bang. Confetti rained down from the tops of the buildings, street vendors shouted their merchandise, children ran in between the legs of the standing crowd. She walked down the middle of the street with fifty-six other fledgling students ranging from sixteen years of age to about forty. She was the youngest in the midst and the nearest her age was a girl named Victoria who was twenty. The felt trapped almost, all of her dreams were being realized, but all of her friends and family seemed to have disappeared from her life. She had no one but a small beaten leather journal to confide in. Later that night she began to write in it.

"Today was our welcoming parade hosted by Geffen's Wizard Tower. The most famous wizard nicknamed Alexia attended. It is so amazing to me to see REAL wizards and witches. They are so fantastic and mesmerizing. I can only imagine how long it took them to get to where they are now. The sheer amount of manuals and scrolls they have studied to learn the tricks and spells. Just looking at them was magical. They were all sitting on platforms with the Dean of Wizard Tower on their right. I felt so frightened when they looked at all of us. They made a speech about how every year they welcome the newest members of the Mage Academy, telling us of how they all once were as young and new to magic as we were. Though I must say there was one of the witches that stood on the platform that I couldn't recognize. She sat underneath a canopy and was wearing very different clothes than what the others wore. I don't know, but when I noticed her and was inspecting her clothes with the Dean spoke, I saw her looking straight at me. I hung my head the rest of the ceremony, and when it was my turn to be christened by the Dean of the Mage Academy I didn't know what to do. He made a speech about the younger the student, the more outstanding they are. And whispered to me, 'A lot is expect from you," before patting my back and sending me off the stage. The whole city seemed to be cheering just for us new students. Even though we haven't even had a single class. I don't know, but it seems all premature."

She ended the entry with her cursive H.I.W. which were her initials. Henrietta Ingus Willow. Mostly everyone called her Willow, but her family called her Ingus. The reasoning behind that was she didn't particularly like her first name, which was derived from the male name Henri. Also she wasn't boylike in anyway and she felt as though it didn't fit her nature. Willow was much more characteristic of her. She always thought willow trees were very graceful and always introduced herself as Willow. Of course her parent's called her what they called her when she was young and only to this day her father, mother and Julia called her Ingus.

She laid in her bed looking up at the ceiling, feeling trapped. She barely had money to eat, but nothing else. The school was paid for completely by her scholarship, and the money for supplies and tools was paid for by the money she made while working at that flower shop. She turned in her bed and looked at the moonlight that spilled onto the dark wooden floor. The room was old and rustic. Everything in the place squeaked, and she got a sliver from walking on the old wood barefoot one night to get a drink of water from a pale on the desk. The moon was silver and bright, she could see clearly the whole room and even underneath the bed. She was barely sixteen years old and felt as though her life had been stolen from her. She wasn't sure why she felt that seeing as everything in her life was quite easy and carefree. She didn't have much to worry about since her father provided for him and his three children and her mother worked for her own wants such as buying flowers on Sunday mornings, getting a new large feather hat. She was a very girly girl, but that kind of feminine beauty didn't really sit well with Henrietta. Often her mother called her a boy, since she mostly liked going outside and enjoying the day, as opposed to sitting at a café with her mothers friends sipping tea. Her mother wasn't the crème de' la crème since she had to work for her earnings and expenses but she enjoyed treating herself to the luxuries of her life. Willow on the other hand had a group of friends who accepted her but didn't really know much about her. She was quite young for their standards and was usually made fun of because of how small she was. She hung out with them because they always explored parts of the city she didn't know about and her curiosity always got the best of her. She was curious and very smart and had a thirst for knowledge, but these last few weeks seemed to be premature as she put it, all play with no work. She had been congratulated by being the youngest the Mage Academy had ever allowed into their doors. The Dean who said that intelligence was not based on age and therefore the doors were open to anyone who could heed the call. She got in on a full-ride scholarship; the only thing they didn't pay for was tools and living expenses aside from housing. Which in her case was quite advantageous seeing as most of her colleagues had to walk nearly a mile everyday from outside the city's high walls. The Mage Academy was located in the inner city of Geffen, near the Wizard Tower, which was a spire that shot extensively high into the dark blue sky. Her lodgings were a few steps away from the Academy's doors.

She had a hard time getting to sleep, but awoke the next morning with good spirits which she usually did. As she looked outside her window she saw the blue-orange dawn reaching about quarter of the sky. The breeze was nice and she got up and started getting ready for her first day of classes. Class didn't begin until three hours later, not even the professors were up at this early hour.

By the time she reached the front door of the pub which was also the entrance to the hotel she was staying at, she saw a few drunks still laughing and making slow by obnoxious noises as she walked by. The pub never closed seeing how centrally located it was and the Geffen Guard Post was a few doors over. They sometimes came in; the guards who worked the night shift and had their morning off.

She went to the market where the vendors were barely getting into town. The vendors who were merchants who received their permits at the Merchant Guild in Alberta were setting up their tables, stands, banners, and prices when she came knocking. She for the past week got all her supplies this early in the morning, when the vendors were still pretty optimistic about the day and could afford a little haggling as opposed to later in the day when they got far too tired and were very grumpy. Most of the Vendors were from families who owned land outside of Geffen and some of them were the actual patriarchs of the families. She recalled reading a book somewhere about the wealth of the land called, Midgard's Goodness. It was by a female author from Louyang. She enjoyed it so much that she kept the book in her luggage and she thought of the exact place she put it in her boxes. The vendors showed what they had, and she getting the best pics of the day scrupled over the size, shape, and weight of everything she put into her basket. She wasn't very good at haggling, seeing as she was only a flower girl from Prontera which was the name she picked up because she used to wear the flowers that weren't pretty enough to be sold. People began calling her Flower Girl and somehow the name translated over to Geffen.

"Good Morning Flower Girl," said a merchant with a carriage of fruits, "we're almost set up."

She smiled knowing how nice they were. She saw sons get out of the back of the carriage, being pulled by a large black and white horse. The stand was still up from the previous day and he was setting out a tablecloth with several well-worn baskets in need of being replaced. Soon she saw the shiny green apples, which were always her favorite. She picked seven of the best looking apples, put them into her basket and began browsing as the sons hurriedly put out their other amenities; bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, and others.

"You look really bright and ready, is there something happening today?" said the merchant.

"Yeah, today the first day of classes for me." She said a little shy. She knew them, but she was shy by nature, especially when around other boys her age that she liked. Though she knew she could never get involved with them. If her parents found out they'd kill him and her. She smiled slyly at on the boys who waved at her. His brother shoved him and laughed. She felt cordial towards the family and still shopped for what she was looking for. She wasn't very good at cooking, but when he mother went out to pubs late at night she found new ways to cook old recipes and made up a few of her own. Her mother urged her to go into cooking and become a chef for Tristan III, but she had a passion for knowledge and being a chef wasn't in that realm. She had planned to make lemonade, and a salad comprising of several fruits and vegetables.

"What I really need now," looking into her rather heavy basket, "is some," she paused looking over the table of fruits and suddenly with a eye of surprise said, "Lemons!"

"I know we have lemons," said the father, looking over his fruits, and then back into the carriage, "But I think my sons forgot them back at the farm." He looked over and over, even underneath the well-constructed tables they operated on. He said they must have left them, but if she came back around noon that day he'd have sent his boys to get them here by then. She said thanks and bought the large basket of fruit now in her arms. She paid to the amount of about thirty zeny for all of her excellent choices. She always got their discount since she knew them so well and they her. She smiled and began on her way back to the lodgings.

The name of the pub was Hvergelmire's Wine, which was pretty famous for its wine, though it was a pub. The name of the Lodge she was at was Geffen's Inn. She smiled and saw that the three drunkards were now gone and the waiter was cleaning up the mess they left. She walked up the stairs feeling a bit weak from walking with all the pounds of the fruit she bought. Though she really didn't need to have bought all that fruit right at that moment this morning, she knew that she should get it done when she had the chance. It was still another hour before classes began, and the sun was now visible, the blue-purplish night was now barely on the outskirts of the western sky, and the bright ivory flames of the sun were reaching the tops of the houses. Wizard Tower was half lit up from it and you could see it from miles around Geffen.

She got into her room and laid all the fruit on the rather large countertop. She had received one of the best rooms of the Geffen Inn because she was a student and there were several powers working behind the scenes to see that the youngest of the young got what she deserved. She graduated her basics four years ahead of time. She was quite happy to be where she was though she still felt as though it was all just surface.

Putting on the fancy leather mage hat she received as a present when she first arrived at her lodgings with several other things from various parties of the Wizard Tower and the Mage Academy. She ate a little before finally leaving, and by that time the sun had reached a point in the sky where it began to heat up. Though a slight breeze blew through town, and people began coming out of the lodges it was still pretty cool. She walked to the Mage Academy across the well-rounded cobblestones. She felt weird hearing the neat little clack of her Mage Boots across the stones, it was a sound that only experienced mages and wizards could recognize. It was strange, she thought, how you can tell just by the sound of the persons wardrobe what kind of profession you had. Of course you could change things you wore, but the basic staples of your attire put you in a class above the regular citizen. She was dubbed a Mage the day before at the ceremony.

The walk to the Academy was easy, and she saw most of the first class already there having gotten well prepared. She had on her left shoulder the rather cumbersome rucksack given to all the Mages. She waited off to the side, seeing as the doors of the academy weren't open and would open in a few minutes. Then out of the crowd she saw the second youngest Mage coming towards her; Victoria. And she came from a rather well to do family of wizards who lived in Geffen. Her mother was a teacher at the Wizard Academy, and her father was off in Juno helping with research at the Sage Castle. She had a lot to live up to. Willow didn't know her very well, and only met her when they were given the acceptance awards a few weeks ago.

The challenge was a breeze; you had to mix seven mixtures to create a mixture compromising of all the various aspects of each of the seven mixtures. It was made difficult because of the amount of mixtures to mix, but the real difficulty was in the order, consistency and amount of each mixture. All you had to do was use very small amounts and mix them to where they would succeed in their amounts, but then apply the ratio to the larger amounts. Plus the mixtures were based on basic knowledge of magic, fire, water, earth, wind, holy, shadow, ghost, and neutral. Neutral was excluded from the mixture amount. So in the end you had to provide the challenge coordinator with a mixture that burned like fire, was light as wind, still in the state of matter as water which was liquid, when condensed was harder than earth, was immune to both holy and shadow magic but had the various aspects of the ghost element. This mixture was a basic mixture and had little use. The only purpose of its use was to challenge new coming mages to test their knowledge of the elements. If you passed and created over 1oz. of the liquid you were immediately put into the top ten of your class which had its benefits, if you made .5oz, you were appointed to a lesser but still high status. If you had 0.4oz or lower you passed but were considered adequate with no special treatment. If you made less than 2.5oz you failed the test. The test was only given once a year, so if you failed you had to try again the following year. Willow passed and made 1.5oz, which was the first time any new coming Mage had ever done. Also the amount of the mixture from the subsequent mixtures that could be made was 1.6oz just from what was given. That was the most that could be made; 1.6oz. She had succeeded and was placed the highest in her class. The two runner-ups made the amounts of 1.1oz and 1.3oz. The 1.3oz was Victoria. Willow didn't know what to make of her coming over to her.

It is no secret that any class faces the greatest competition from members from their own class. Victoria was her subordinate, and that might be quite surprising for a girl who came from a very wealthy family of wizards and witches. After all Willow came from a family from the suburbs of Prontera a city which was so filled with all kinds of people it would be hard to nail down a specific class to choose from. While Geffen of which Victoria lived in her whole life was The City of Magic. She might be coming to start something the first day of school, which would send a message to people of lower class not to meddle in the upper classes' professions. But instead it wasn't as she had thought.

"Not many people get up that early." Said Victoria in quite a languid tone.

"I make due with what I have." Said Willow equally languid.

"I was quite surprised when I heard the Dean say that you made 1.5oz of our 'putty'," and she put emphasis on 'putty,"I don't suppose you're the next Lux?"

"What the Lux?"

"A Lux is the next big thing in magic. My great grandfather was the Lux of his generation; he created the spell known as 'Fire Storm', which I don't know if you know your magic's very well is the fire version of Blizzard Gust. It was very difficult I imagine to create." Said Victoria quite listlessly, as if she had heard and told the story many times.

"I don't know if I am, all I know is what I've studied. And most of the stuff I've been challenged on is all common sense."

"Is it?" said Victoria quite pointedly.

"I don't know."

"Well I don't think I really care if you are or not. But let me introduce myself formally," She stood upright and put her hand out toward Willow for her to shake, "I'm Victoria Belle of the Wilde family." And Willow standing up as she before her holding her and giving it a good shake, "I am Henrietta Ingus Willow."

Giving her a slight smile from the side of her mouth she said, "Nice to meet you Willow, I hear people call you Flower Girl." Pulling her hand back, Willow said, "Yes, they do, I worked in a flower shop in Prontera and I guess the nickname just caught on, I don't know how it got over here though."

"People are always traveling through here and Prontera. You're quite pretty, and the fact that you worked at a flower shop isn't surprising but it is quite conventional and when people hear conventional things it sort of sticks. You like the nickname?"

"I'm not particularly fond of it, but I don't dislike it either. I don't really care much about it."

"Well I'll just call you Willow then." And then the loud bells from the Wizard Tower shook the city's walls. "Suppose we should go in then?" Victoria began walking inside along with Willow at her side.

Willow was so intrigued by Victoria. She was beautiful, wore impeccable cosmetics, had stature, long straight black hair. Her mere presence demanded respect, and if you got her mad you could only imagine how her soft and beautiful façade would turn into a dark, sharp, and dangerous beast. She was nice enough, but not because she enjoyed your company or respected you based on your position or title, but merely out of mutuality. She had no reason to disrespect you, and thus every one earned a respect out of not knowing them. She was nice enough, thought Willow. Good to have her on this side than any other she imagined.

The day began with standing in a large courtyard. Willow, Victoria, and George were the first and foremost of all the students seeing as they had been the best in the qualifying challenges. George was a twenty-five-year-old man who had dark curly brown hair, was very slender and tall and had bright green eyes. Willow didn't know much about him, other than the fact that he had come in third, and was from Schwartzwald.

The trainer began loudly, "You have all come here seeking to learn magic. Perhaps you have come to just pass your final exams as mages, perhaps you have come to continue your research and refine your knowledge. Perhaps you have come to simply qualify to become a Wizard or Witch, or perhaps you have come to learn all that magic can teach you and become a Sage. Whatever your motives or passion, know this. Magic is not a toy. Magic must be disciplined extensively to achieve real result. You must know how to sense and handle magic. The more you know, the more protected you are. Some of you might have come here to do fancy tricks, or to frighten away thugs or criminals. But know this magic is extremely dangerous. Even now you each hold all our lives in your hands. You must know when you can begin, and when you are supposed to stop. Magic is very fickle my friends, if you aren't nice to it, it won't be nice to you. Treat magic with respect and it will respect you. I tell you this as a thirty year veteran of magic using. I am officially a Mage Trainer which takes twenty five years of training. I can stop most basic spells, but ones that are newly invented are quite hard to handle. I am here to protect you. You have all come with your knowledge, but today's exercises are stemmed from the fact that Mages cannot be physically weak. We start with the basics and that is knowledge of the human body and form. Over the course of the next few weeks you will learn all about the human body; how to handle battle with fire, water, wind, and earth. Your body must be prepared at all times. Because magic is so dangerous, you must prepare yourself for it if it turns on you. Since magic is based purely from your psyche you will also be taught how to control your thoughts. Focus is key my fledglings. Without focus the simplest spells can give you scars for the rest of your life. Look here!" and she tore the thick cotton bandage that covered her right arm. "This scar you see here," and held the turgid flesh that was bright red in the sun, "it is from an accident. I was practicing hot-water magic. Because I forgot that the water was hot, I gave myself 3rd degree burns that will stay with me for the rest of my life. This is an example of what magic can do to you even in the safest environments. I was practicing at my home in Izlude. You must be prepared, because if you're not you will end up like this but worse." Then taking a step back she held up her hands and said quite loudly, "Now lets begin!"

The first round of exercises compromised of basic knowledge of how to move the body. It was very slow movements, and you were required to handle them each in how things interacted. This specific exercise was based in knowing your body and reacting to your environment and adjusting movement. It was slow, but very steady body movements. Most of the students couldn't handle it because it was based on physical strength. Willow held up for nearly twenty minutes but final fell. Victoria kept strong the entire exercise, as well as George. By the end only seven people were still moving, while the rest were recovering from reaching their limits. This training went on for two more weeks. Each day you attended these classes for nine hours a day, with a one-hour break every three hours. Victoria and Willow got to know each other very well.

During the first break which was the common lunch time of day, they enjoyed with each other lunch. Victoria did invite Willow over to her rather large fancy mansion located within the inner circle of Geffen. And the enjoyed each others company very well. Willow told her of all the happenings of Prontera, while Victoria schooled Willow on the various aspects of the magic community. Together they provided each other with company and were complementary to each other. Soon the second round of training came about. By then they had grown into great friends. George was top notch in all of the exercises and Willow got a crush on him quite soon. He was much older than her, and to her was the perfect epitome of masculinity. He was strong, lean, had strength, smarts, and when he sweated he looked absolutely divine. But most of all he was focused on doing the exercises to the best of his ability. Willow soon found out that she lacked severely in all these beginning exercises most because she was so young. Victoria was about a foot taller than her, was well developed, as well as took very good care of herself. George was more than equipped for these challenges and coped with them quite easily as they got into the later stages. Willow found herself failing quite often, but she really did all she could to endure these intense exercises. But she did learn quite a lot about her body. She learned how to move back and forth and sense things coming toward her before they even touched her. George wasn't so good at these but he still kept his form. Victoria messed up a few times but luckily got the hang of it quite easily. Willow just couldn't keep holding the positions and moving back and forth very slowly. Those exercises needed strength, which she found herself lacking. Still she held in there. The other students all had varying degrees of focus and strength and sensitivity. By the end of these initial exercises twenty of them had failed. If you failed the course you were given a second chance, and if you failed the second chance you failed and were expected to follow up. If you failed a third time you were moved to the waiting list and when the courses were finished you would be retaught the lessons. Each instructor had a three-month teaching gap. The first was exercise and knowing the body. The second instructor was for knowing surroundings and being able to sense things coming at the body. The third instructor taught how to handle getting hit with a spell, this was six months long because the sheer amount of spells that were available was stifling and needed extra time to be allowed. The fourth was learning basic four-element magic. The fifth was learning shadow, holy and ghost magic. The sixth was learning neutral magic. The seventh was learning combination spells. Eighth was learning complex magic. Ninth was learning complex combination spells. Tenth was preparation for finals. The finals were extremely hard to deal with, because you would be pitted up against the trainers. If you could land a good damage dealing hit on them you could pass. Also you must submit a thesis with supporting documentation of your own study about various magic. Then you would be reviewed and then graduate the Mage Academy with a Mage Class Certificate. You would only then be allowed to wear the Mage regalia. From there you could pursue a Wizard Class Certificate, a Witch Class Certificate, or a Sage Degree. The major difference between the Wizard Class and Witch Class was that Wizards specialized in four element spells, while Witches specialized in shadow, holy and/or ghost magic. The Sage Degree was completely different in how it operated and required extensive knowledge and research. Usually Mages never pursued a Sage Degree, seeing as it was exceedingly difficult. Though Wizard Class and Witch Class were semi equal in how they operate, Sage Degree was entirely different. In the Sage Degree you would learn about counter spells and extremely complex magic. Sages were well rounded in physicality and mentality as well. Sages were required to provide physical strength in their testing while for Wizards and Witches the physical work involved was the basic knowledge learned as basic Mages. The work they did here they wouldn't be required to do later in their careers as fledgling wizards and witches.

And Victoria and Willow got along especially well through their training. The program was a three-year process, and much could happen within those three years. Of course if you excelled in the programs you would be allowed to pass and that is what seven of them did. George, Victoria, Willow and several others ended up passing most of their coursework in one month as opposed to the three-month limit. They graduated within a year with their Mage Class Certificates.

George though distant did become a good friend of Victoria and Willow, mostly with Victoria though. You see, George was from the Republic of Schwartzwald and had been the youngest son of seven to one of the major manufacturing CEO's of Einbroch. He had been pressured to pursue a path in Experimental Metalwork, which was the fancy name for blacksmiths, but he didn't want to. His father had invented a strange machine that allowed for the use of steam pressure to power huge facilities. It was difficult work and most of his other brothers were chosen to go into this path. Because he was the youngest he wasn't very much cared for and very neglected which is why he was so quiet. Plus the idea that his father had of one of his sons being a dainty wizard or witch send him into a rage when he first heard the request of sending George off to school. Because of this George made it his business to make sure that he focused and made sure his father knew how serious magic was. His father named Michael was very mechanical in how he thought. Plus he was very far removed from any kind of magic using community that he thought it to be completely absurd that a wand could bring down a huge beast. Michael realized that of his eight sons only one of them wanted to pursue a life elsewhere and he allowed him to do that. Plus he didn't know his sons completely as a father should. He realized statistically he had enough of his sons that one wouldn't be a loss. He sends his son to Geffen to fend for himself, which George did. While not at class he worked to provide for his living, which was a small monthly rent from a family, which could use his manual labor and paid him as much as they could. He could eat on what he made. George made it his business to do what he could, but Victoria being from a family well established could afford to treat her friends who were a struggling heir of a famous inventor and the strange budding Lux of her generation.

It was during a winter that Willow did find out why Victoria wasn't so threatened by her. She having gone back to her lodging and got ready to sleep found someone knocking at her door. Upon opening it she saw Victoria crying and with only a small jacket. After calming Victoria down she realized that she had been crying over a realization. The reason why Victoria was crying was that she didn't feel like she had any real worth. Though she loved her family and had an amazing home and house, she felt she had no say in what she wanted and how she could live her life. She didn't want to become a Mage, but neither did she want not to be Mage. She wanted it to be her decision, and up until this point she had been living for her parents. What would the other Wizard and Witch families say if the heiress to a famous family of magic users went off to become a swordswoman or an archer? Each class at this time had ethnocentrism built deep within their psyche. And the more famous your family got, the more it mattered what your children were doing. You see the professions were so wide spread that if a Wizard/Witch family had a Huntress for a daughter the family business would be out the window. It didn't matter too much if there were more heirs but because Victoria was the youngest Wilde she didn't have any other choice. She knew she had been living for her family and after seeing this young girl who knew more than her age she felt she could confide in her. A girl who knew what she was doing, while Victoria didn't. Though she did her work and coursework with all intent and was exceedingly good at it she felt as though she was living a life she didn't want to live. This had been going on long before she had even accepted the initial qualifying challenge. She had it in her blood, and the advantage of it being all that she knew. She wanted to explore the world and know more than just magic. She had been sick of it her entire life, and began learning magic before she even began going to the Mage Academy. Her father and mother would teach her little tricks here and there. It was in her stars as they might say. But she had no say in her stars. She felt helpless and without purpose.

The moon had just begun shining through the cracks between the houses with in the Inner Circle. She saw Victoria's puddle of tears at her feet. They were both sitting on the mattress where Willow slept every night. The city was still alive, and a faint hum of the happenings outside the three-story building could be heard. Willow put her hand on Victoria's back and pulled her to her. Even though Victoria was larger than Willow she held onto little Willow crying into her chest. Willow embraced her and began telling her that she was doing okay. Telling her that her life isn't over yet. She had so much to do with her life. After all Victoria was a very good at anything she did regardless of what it was. She cried until all the pent up emotions had subsided.

"It's just I don't know where my life is going. I know what my family expects of me. I know that they want me to become a Witch or a Wizard, but they don't even know me. They don't know who I am and what I want. All they want is an daughter who can carry on the family legacy. I can do magic, but I don't know if that's what I want. I feel like I've been blindfolded and am being led into a direction I'm not sure if I want."

"Do you want to become a Mage?"

"You see that's my problem! I don't know what I want. I'm here; I'm doing well in all the courses. In fact I'm exceeding everything. It is challenging me but I think it's challenging me enough. I'm not sure of what I want."

"Perhaps you should take a break and try to find out what you want. Do you have any other interests?"

"I didn't have time to find that out. I've been sort of defaulted into this, not even given a chance. Its like they already knew before I was born that I would be a Wizard or Witch. Since day one they've always told me to do this or do that. And I have done this and I have done that. There isn't anything that I want it feels. I'm too busy trying to do this work."

"Vickie, give yourself some time. You will be able to find out on your own once you start thinking for yourself."

"Thanks Will. I really appreciate that."

Then as they sat there with the moon rising, Victoria asked, "Can I stay here tonight? I don't want to go back home."

"Sure I don't mind."

"Thanks Will, I really appreciate this." And then they proceeded to go to bed.

The following day Victoria went back to her home and talked with her parents. Willow thought, perhaps this was the exact kind of thing she needed to figure out what she wanted. She waited for her to return. Around noon that day, Willow heard Victoria knocking on her door again. She opened the door and saw George instead. He asked, "Have you seen Victoria today? We were supposed to go out together."

Biting her tongue, "I don't think I've seen her today. I'm sure she's back at her home." Why did he like her? She thought. She had seen him looking at Victoria all those times when they would all hang out. George was a nice guy but was quite assertive when it came to deciding what he wanted. He didn't really dance around the bush like most guys. They had gotten to know each other, but usually the conversation revolved around Victoria, and as much as Willow liked him, she hated herself for liking him. Though he had a lot to offer her, she knew that by her liking him it could tear the three of them apart forever. Victoria was very good at everything she did and though she could easily like George she had much bigger things to deal with. George did care for Willow but in a way that an older brother would for his younger sister. She was nice to him and with his breeding he was exceedingly nice to her; a gentleman. She knew something was going on between them, but to which degree she didn't know. But over everything, the way she hated that he liked Victoria and not her and how Victoria was a great friend treated him without much regard angered her. Victoria didn't deserve him and she could easily take George away from Willow. But the biggest hurdle was that Willow could see through her emotions and realized in essence they were really quite complementary of each other Victoria and George. George was assertive and knew why he was there and his plan to finish out his goals. Meanwhile Victoria did exceedingly well that she didn't know too much about herself. She didn't know what to do and that when given a chance to see someone who really knew what he was doing it might allow her to get to know herself. Willow was a good friend but that's all she could be. The idea of Victoria and Willow as a couple was silly because Willow as much as she liked Victoria was not interested in her in any sense of a relationship of sexual nature. She of all things admired her and if anything was jealous of her. But she liked him, too much she thought. Too many times had she thought about him in the early hours of the morning, or the late hours of the night? Too many times and it sickened her that she could be throttled by her own emotions. She hated herself most of all. In her deepest thoughts she said, "How foolish."

He left and she was left to her own thoughts. How could she be so stupid to allow herself to like him? And he was beautiful. He had stature much like Victoria, was tall, masculine, lean, and had a great mind. He was sexy, and was so very smart. She couldn't help but like him. But most of all he had purpose. And with her she thought, do I not have purpose as well? What would happen if we both joined our forces? What could we achieve then? With two exceedingly powerful Mages it was a threat most people wouldn't want to deal with. Suddenly another knocking, and it was Victoria this time. This time she was exceedingly happy. Immediately Willow's stomach turned ill and she felt bad. Her immediate thought was that George had somehow proposed to her and Victoria came over to tell her the 'good' news. But that wasn't why she had come.

Holding Willows hands up, Victoria said with complete conviction, "I do want to become a Mage! I really do. I began thinking about it like you said and I realized I have everything to become a great Wizard. I could even be the Lux! My father and mother said they had neglected my ideas and wants and those they would be okay if I went ahead and chose another path. But I realized that I do want this. Not for my father, or mother, or even my last name. I want to do this for myself. You're right I have the whole world ahead of me. Thank you so much!" and embraced Willow. Immediately her stomach had turned right again, and she suddenly felt so happy for Victoria.

"You see, Vicki? You know what you want now."

"Thank you so much!" and they just hugged for a few moments before releasing.

"Lets go out. I want to have a little fun."

Pulling me out the door we stepped onto the city streets. By this time the day was waning and the sky was getting slightly darker. It was still bright, but pleasantly. Vicki took me to the traveling circus that happened to stop through Geffen, and boy was it amazing! But all the while we had fun at the circus, playing on the rides and buying the cotton candy I was thinking about poor George. He had planned to enjoy the day with Victoria and now she was spending it with me. She should treat him better; at least tell him we were going out. I don't know it seemed terribly irresponsible of her to do something like that. It seemed that he really had planned to enjoy his time with her. Night was soon upon the whole city and the circus was off a little from the Inner Circle of Geffen and in a smaller suburb but still within the city limits. We came back to the Geffen Inn around 10:00PM that night. She slept here with me again.

The very next day classes began and as usual I was out the door three hours ahead of classes beginning call. Only twenty-nine of the initial first students of this year were still on schedule. Even though it was a three year program, Victoria, Me, and George were on 6th level instructors. We were studying neutral magic, which were very quick spells that acted like physical objects. These particular spells were still within the realm of basic magic but were above all the most dangerous we've learned up to the date. As always we were brought out into an open courtyard where the exercises began. We were all given warm-up exercises and then were told to focus our thoughts on the physical surroundings. This was to set our minds to thinking physically. Each type of magic or attribute we were told to focus on the thing we were learning. For instance if we were learning a spell based with fire, we were told to focus on torches, or if we were being taught water; a fountain of water was focused upon.

We began with basic casts, the first and foremost was telekinesis which is a neutral based magic. We moved basic objects like round balls to large rocks. These exercises were simple, but if used aggressively they could be extremely formidable. The next round of casts we learned was neutral based phantoms. A phantom is a representation of a specific thing. All the magic we learned were all phantoms. A phantom had the attribute and consistency of what the real objects were but only lasted as long as the duration of magical effect was. Phantoms are as they say physical manifestations of the mind but are not real. A mage cannot cast a spell and create real water out of nothing. He could however create a phantom of water, which acted and essentially was water but after a few moments would disappear. The neutral based phantoms were exceedingly hard to achieve since they were very hard to nail down in a mental state. We however tried our best. Victoria excelled in these casts, George struggled but soon got the hang of it, while on Willow's part had a rough time casting them. She was more adept at using four element casts. Victoria was well adept at using four elements, and shadow/holy/ghost spells but for some reason she had pure talent for neutral based casting which is a rarity. George was more adept in Shadow Holy casting. The instructor pulled Victoria aside and told her that in all his years he had never seen any Mage master those spells so soon, and more to the point saw that she had a real talent for them. In fact he told her, she cast the spells much better than he did. This would be put into a formal report to the Dean, which could lead to a sponsorship. Victoria was happy throughout the rest of the day.

Days passed, and soon weeks did as well. Nothing much changed since the sheer focus one had to keep on these tasks was exceedingly high. Willow and Victoria went out very few times and George sometimes came along mostly being quite distant. Then when the finals for Neutral based magic came Victoria came to class completely ready to attain everything she could.

Immediately the sparring began between instructor and student, only this time the instructor was intimidated by his opponent; Victoria who was the first to take the stand. Immediately off the shot Victoria jumped into action, running forward toward her opponent and firing off a multitude of phantoms headed straight for the instructor. He quickly counter charged with an equal amount of phantoms which, when they hit their opponents canceled it out and made a heavy thud sound. Ready to cast another volley of phantoms the instructor noticed Victoria wasn't anywhere in sight, then realizing the spell she cast shot the volley in every direction. One hundred and eighty degrees the direction he was facing did one of the phantoms hit Victoria, but not before she cast the shard phantom spell called "Shatter" which sent sharp slabs of neutral based magic at the instructor. He barely dodged them but not without sustaining a little bit of scratches from his escape. She immediately took off into another direction and again cast the invisibility cloak that she had learned quite early. The instructor also cast the invisibility cloak and melted into his surroundings. Soon silence came over the field and only the scuffing of their boots on the ground field could be heard. That's when Victoria began casting the spell called "Billow" which was a spell that created loud booms of neutral based magic that pushed back the opponents and as soon as she began casting the instructor leaped out from the shadows behind her intending to shoot of a volley of phantoms but before he got there the first billow began. It threw him off so terribly that he couldn't catch himself and was thrown back. The next billow came from behind him thundering a crashing noise as it hit the wall and cracking it. Then the instructor began running back and forth trying to miss the billows, which were one of the later spells, he had taught in the class and knew easily how to evade them. The first one caught him off guard and was quite a lucky shot. The spell, "Billow" was quite useful because you could cast other spells while it went off. Time and time again the instructor got a clear shot at Victoria but only for a second before a billow blew up in his face. The billows could easily counter spell other neutral based magic which made it exceedingly difficult for him to cast on her. Meanwhile he was ducking and dodging trying to get a good shot Victoria was in the midst of the field casting a spell he couldn't what. The rest of the students watched in awe how long and large the billows lasted. The spell usually only lasted for a full sixty seconds, but it was now on the fifth minute. Then when the last billow ended and the instructor could clearly see Victoria he shot of a huge volley of phantoms, which shot deep into the sky and began homing in on Victoria's position. She stood up from her kneeling and cast a spell that the instructor didn't know. "Fission Calamity!" Victoria cast and from her hands came rays of neutral magic that shot down every phantom and she pointed it straight at the instructor who was so awe struck didn't realize he was being targeted. Then the fission was released and a huge ray of energy was released onto the instructor. He was shoved back into the north wall and the entire field cracked with such energy. With his knowledge of neutral magic he redirected the spell where most of the energy didn't hit him straight on but still received the first initial blast. By the end of the duration he had been drained of all his energy and had been fighting for survival like never before. Victoria stood tall and had done what only a few students in the history of the Mage Academy had done; defeated the instructor. Usually at the end of the magic teaching processes they would spar with the students. If the students got a clear and good shot off with any of the spells taught throughout the course they could pass. The instructor was supposed to take a defensive position, but could counter with other spells and attack the students with low-level spells, which didn't leave scars or cause immense pain. In times when the student and instructor were evenly matched the instructor could be more rough with the student and visa-versa. This time around Victoria was supreme in her newfound knowledge of neutral based magic and easily defeated her instructor. The instructor was supposed to spar with all the students but was relieved of his duties temporarily for recovery, which another instructor was substituted.

The day wore on and Willow had been selected to go as one of the last since neutral was not her strong point. She began with quite a simple but energy consuming cast called hollow fists where the hands of the caster was endowed with neutral magic. She wasn't perfect at physical combat but she imagined that with her speed she could land a few quick hits off the instructor. Obviously she had to reach the instructor who now stood on the other side of the field. She began running, and immediately the instructor cast a volley of phantoms at her which she easily dodged. He began casting more spells, one called "Vacuum" which acted as a vortex and crushed anyone who came close to it. She nearly fell straight into it but cast a spell called Hover which was a spell that created temporary flight for the caster and she flew straight over it. She was almost on the instructor when he finished casting Billow, the same spell that Victoria cast which lead to her imminent victory. The first billow blew up right before Willow, but she running around it found herself upon the instructor who had also cast Hollow Fists. Immediately they began hand to hand combat and the instructor was much taller and stronger than the slender Willow.

She easily dodged and ducked underneath his attacks, hit him a few times on his sides but they didn't deal much damage since she put little force into them because she was busy evading him. He was quick but not nearly as quick as Willow. She weaved between his fists evading his strongest jabs and landed a few key-placed hits right in his underarm and on his back. She having exceeded in the first few classes about different parts of the body had a highly developed sense of muscle groups and knew exactly which ones that were weaker than others but still were necessary for stronger hits. She targeted these specifically and soon the energy and strength of the instructor waned. The Billows bursting around them had little affect and the other students who had passed and others waiting for their turns were riveted with only slight glimpses at them between the large white bubbles of the neutral based magic.

Soon she was right upon him, and he nearly worn completely out from hitting nothing but air, tried one last punch. She dodged it and cast the spell called "Sting Ray" which was a spell that had barb-like needles of neutral based magic which shot straight into the instructor's chest. It was a low-level cast but it still could deal damage. The instructor barely moved out of the way of the most of the barbs but still got hit by a large amount of them. This spell was particularly painful because it felt like little needles puncturing the skin. The instructor cried out in pain, and soon was waving his hands in submission.

Usually there were five stand-by instructors who could fill in for the other instructors if they were deemed unfit to give the tests anymore. By now this was the last of the five instructors and a handful of students still hadn't taken the test along with George. The instructors gathered for a consensus on who should be elected to finish off the testing, and seeing the orange-red sunset already setting they decided to finish it off with one of the more advanced instructors; a woman named Kindle. Kindle was the instructor for complex combination magic and had her Wizard Certificate as well as a Witch Certificate. She was one of the highly trained Wizard/Witches in Geffen.

Soon the field was rebuilt and ready for battle. Kindle was on the playing field and was waiting for the next contender, who was a relatively young man named Joseph. Joseph wasn't particularly good at neutral based magic and found his talents with Shadow and Holy based magic. But he stepped up to the plate and was prepared to give it his all. Kindle on the other hand was not in any casting stance, which all the other instructors were. Kindle being a high class Wizard/Witch had impeccable cast speed, and could at a moments notice release a huge volley of billows and phantoms at her opponent. But she wasn't here to kill or severely wound the students but to give them a battle at their levels. Though still knowing how powerful she was, was a menacing thought to most? Joseph began casting Billow, which he had learned was an especially useful spell in all the battles up to this point and he fully, intended to end this battle as soon as possible. All he had to do was release a volley of phantoms where at least half of them hit home. But as he cast that was relatively slow he saw Kindle casting a spell of her own. The spell she was casting was called "Implosion" which was the same type of spell as Billow but instead of creating billowing bubbles of neutral based magic did the opposite, neutral based magic sucked up energy and at its highest point would create a burst; which in this situation was an equally powerful spell for countering Billow. Non of the instructors had used Implosion before and were amazed at how easily Kindle cast it. Most of the time these instructors didn't really go beyond their training as Mages, and had years of learning the same basic spells and some refined their skills on using them from time to time but never really went beyond it. Kindle was an experienced caster and had knowledge of both a Wizard and a Witch, though none of which were particularly adept in Neutral based magic. She however thought that since she wasn't especially trained in neutral based magic through her training as a Wizard and Witch took it upon herself to develop spells that were neutral based. She trained long and hard on learning these dusty spells, which no one really used anymore. You have to realize that when spells are created they have to be tested by the Board that was a group of high-level casters who decided whether or not the spells were useful enough to be taught. If they didn't reach their standards they weren't taught in Academies, Schools or any other kind of institution if they didn't have their seal of approval. So in order to learn the more less-used spells you had to seek out the Wizard/Witch who created the spell or ones that knew how to cast it well. Implosion was one of those spells and the Board found that it wasn't particularly useful when compared to Billow and its only real use was to combat Billow.

Then loud fissures of sound breached the grounds of the field as the Billows crashed with the Implosions. Each Billow that randomly occurred was being strategically counter played by the specific locations of the Implosions which sucked up energy and made Joseph's billows quite weak, but since the reaction of something exploding and something imploding created unbalanced level of energy on the field a harsh clash of energy being sucked from one place to another created large bolts of energy which thundered as lightning. Soon Joseph realized that his cast couldn't create the wanted effect because they each were being negated by Kindle's casts. He then taking a hint from Willow took to his fists with Hollow Fists and headed across the minefield of billows and implosions to attack Kindle. She still concentrating on the implosions and billows didn't really expect someone to go head first into the no-man's-land between them and if he casted a long range spell she would have time to counter it. Joseph was ballsy and blindly optimistic at times and this was one of those times. Sadly he wasn't as nimble as Willow was and was caught between one of the billows and implosions. He cried out in pain as the bolt of energy shot straight through his thigh, it drew no blood but left a nasty scorch mark on his leg. He limped away from the area, and began casting volleys of phantoms at Kindle. She realizing his feeble attempt cast her own volleys that easily countered them. Soon the Billow casting stopped and her implosions with it, she looked across the field and saw no one but the students at the far end. She looked around and began trying to sense where he had gone. The rules of the test were that the competitors could not use any other kind of magic aside from the magic being taught. Only neutral based magic could be used in this battle and she began quickly trying to think of a spell to bring him out of the Invisibility Cloak he cast. She then realized that the same spell he used at the beginning, Billow was perfect. It was a random cast spell and would repeat over the entire battle field forcing Joseph to run hitherto there. She then could use volleys where he would most likely be running to force him out of his cloak. But as she began casting Billow she noticed rustling in the grass off to the side and realized it was Joseph. Immediately she cast volley and sent a large number of phantoms into his direction when she realized it was a distraction and felt a piercing pain in her lower back. Joseph had quite effectively taken down Kindle with the use of so many different spells. He was still badly wounded on his leg, but with distraction and his invisibility he won. Though the hit wasn't nearly enough to hurt Kindle enough to send her to the hospital it was the point of the test. He landed a perfectly executed spell on the instructor. The test was over and he won.

Kindle thanked Joseph for his intense use of mental strength and patted him on the back telling him he passed. Kindle then faced off with the remaining few students. George for some odd reason had elected himself last of the Neutral based tests. He stepped onto the plate and prepared for battle. Kindle easily had neutralized the other students and they were selected for retesting the following day along with the others from before Kindles debut. George was standing quite still ready for battle. Kindle as beautiful as she was, was still flustered from Joseph's and decided that George was good enough to take on a little harder. The shot began the battle and George thrust off the plate with Hover but a slightly developed version, which made him quite a lot quicker. He was about two hundred feet away from Kindle and already he passed half that amount in two seconds. Kindle realized he was very straightforward and cast Crest which was a spell that a protection spell and surrounded the caster. It was intensely useful when facing physical battle with non-casters. The time George got to Kindle, he had already cast Hollow Fists, and she cast Volley; which none of which hit home. He easily dodged them and was right about to land a fist on Kindle when the shield she created deflected his attempt. He was dumbstruck, and then unleashed a fierce burst of energy and speed with several consecutive hits to the shield. Kindle thinking that the shield should hold him off for a few moments soon realized that with the speed and strength of George's fists it wouldn't last very long, and she had little time to cast another spell. She was intending to cast Sting Ray when suddenly the shield burst and she found herself deflecting his fists barely with her knowledge of hand-to-hand combat she learned while training with the Swordsman Guild several years ago. She wasn't particularly good at it, but had knowledge of it and used it to her advantage. She barely held him off for a few moments before he landed one right on her left shoulder and sent her spinning. The pain was from brute force and when it happened she barely felt it, it was the moments later when she had time to recover that she realized how hard he hit her. She soon got angry, but realizing he had passed the test brushed her self off and walked the other way realizing her duties had been sufficiently completed. She knew she'd get back at him when he came under her class. The other instructors tried to help her, but she brushed them aside knowing in her heart she had underestimated him. It was her fault, but that wouldn't happen again.


	2. Chapter 2

Begin Chapter 2

The Night was dark.

Willow awoke to a loud sound outside the window of her lodging. The winter had passed and spring was just sprouting. It was about three-o-clock in the morning and she still felt a tired. But waking herself up from her deep slumber she looked outside the window and saw on the open courtyard where a lovely fountain was, there was a huge crater with the water pipe spraying a fine mist. Then wiping her eyes for clarity she saw something standing there in the crater. It looked like a man cloaked. Then she heard someone scream deeper in the city.

"You stop!" said a guardsmen with a long black-steel spear pointed at the figure.

"You're under arrest. If you fail to comply you will be taken down." And soon there were several other guards coming forth from the other districts of Geffen.

The figure still stood there, not saying a word, the mist of water hid his identity, but his figure could still be seen. Then when he had been fully surrounded, the guards began the decent into the crater. They approached the man.

"Put your hands up, or you will be forced to comply." Said the firm guard with the large plume of feathers at the top of his bird-shaped helmet.

She heard the man say something, but it was so obscure she couldn't make it out. Still in her pajamas she leaned as far outside the window she could without slipping; trying to hear what he was saying.

"Fiend!" shouted the guard hearing the last of the words of the man and jabbed his spear straight at the man. The man evaded the spear and cast a spell and with a blink of an eye he vanished with a bright light obscuring their sight.

"Find the intruder! We must not let him escape. Block all exits to the city!" and then the loud cry of the warning bells shot into the silent night sky. The city went on alert. Soon people began poking their heads out their doors, to which guards told them to stay in their homes. The city was soon going under lockdown. Henrietta saw the whole thing, but didn't know what the man had said to provoke the rather quaint and nice guards of Geffen. She began thinking about what the possibilities were, but soon she felt the sluggish pull of sleep as she took a seat at her desk filled with old magic scrolls and textbooks. She was very eager to get on with her studies and had checked out as much material as she was allowed, but being a humble Mage student she wasn't allow much access. She took what she could and carried them back to her lodging in the Geffen Inn. She faintly looked over the accumulated texts and felt very sleepy. It was nearly three hours before her wake-up time and she desperately needed her sleep. The day of the complex magic finals was just yesterday and she was still sore from her impeccable victory over her instructor. She felt to tired to do anything, and the guards were already telling people to go back to bed and stay out of the way.

As a young child Henrietta Ingus Willow learned to stay out of the way of the police. They always had things under control and always kept the safety of their citizens first and foremost. She drifted off to sleep and awoke an hour late from her regularity. It was seven-o-clock and she had missed the initial first buy of the day from the market. If she wanted to eat today she'd have to buy at full price. She quickly got ready hoping that they'd remember her and give her her usual discount.

With her battered Mage regalia she walked onto the still misty streets of the early morning. It was a lot livelier than she thought and just remembered what happened the night before. She taking a look at the crater just three hours prior to she saw that the whole area was blocked off with several guards standing at the entrances to the gated area. Large sheets of fabric covered the area and there was no chance of seeing the damage up close. She walked wearily by towards the market. The market had picked up pace since the winter months ended. She was already on her 9th Level Instructor, which taught complex combination spells and she had barely turned seventeen-years-old.

Soon she was onto the market to see her favorite fruit merchants. She came upon the usual spot, and found them laughing it up, bringing life into the early morning vendors. They were a happy and joyous folk and could make most people laugh. They usually laughed and joked the day long which got them a lot of business and a lot of return customers; after all Willow was one.

"Good Morning Willow! A bit late today are we?" said Gerard who was the official owner of their little stand. Kurt and Danny where standing off to the side, Gerard's two sons who helped bring the fruits into the city.

"I know," said Willow shyly but having known them a little longer was more comfortable around them than any of the other vendors, "I couldn't sleep last night and just woke up."

"You heard the commotion? I don't know what but something's been happening here in town. They say something happened last night."

"Really?" trying to act as innocent and ignorant as she could.

"Yeah, they said some guy blew up a fountain and ran away. They've been searching for him all day. The exits of the city have had increased guard patrols and they're checking everybody out who leaves, and more importantly anyone who comes in. They questioned us and searched out merchandice before we could even come in." said Gerard.

"Yeah, they were acting very desperate." Said Kurt, the handsome one Willow liked a lot.

"Desperate for our melons I'm sure, haha!" said Danny, the funny and rather vulgar one and cupped his pecs. He was handsome also but much chubbier than his brother.

"I suppose," said Willow shyly trying to laugh at a the unfunny joke. Gerard and Kurt both laughed at it anyway.

"Well, enough of this silly squabble over some guy vandalizing a fountain, if there's anything I know about the Geffen Noble Guards it is that they always take everything way too seriously. They've just increased the permit rate to two-hundred zeny!" said Gerard.

"Yeah, " said Kurt, "But they've nixed the five zeny path tolls. And the way we travel we spend four-hundred on those things!" and another volley of laughs erupted from the stand.

Willow smiled and began filling her basket with the fruits. Someone else had already come through picking the best and she had to settle for second best. The worst part was that all the fruits were lacking their vigor since winter just ended. The newest batch of the spring collection wouldn't be ripe enough to eat until a week at least. She bought her fruits and vegetables and headed back to her lodging. She looked back to see Kurt and Danny laughing hard at some story Gerard was telling to them. She was sure it was a well versed story he'd told again and again. She smiled and went into the Pub under the Geffen Inn.

She putting all the fruits and vegetables away and picking up her cooking untensils heard a knock at her door. Immediately she thought of the man in black standing on the other side of the door. She opened it slightly, and then it burst open with Victoria on the other side.

"Morning Willie!" said Victoria brighter than ever.

"Morning Vicki."

"You ready for our next course? Can you believe it, in just a year we're at the 9th Level Instructors? We're destined to be great aren't we?"

"I don't know Vicki, who knows?" said Willow rather languidly. She was still thinking about the man in black.

"You seem a little in the dumps today, what's wrong?"

"Oh nothing, I slept in today and I'm feeling out of my usual rhythm."

"Oh silly you!" and bopped Willow on the nose. It was something that always cheered Willie up. Willow smiled and pushed Vicki's finger out of her face and shoving her hand into hers. They laughed a bit and then ate breakfast. Vicki always came over for breakfast ever since she decided she really did want to get her Mage Certificate. She would sleep over sometimes but not usually.

Soon they were off to the Mage Academy and this time Willow truly felt like she belonged there. The large black-stained doors opened to the large courtyard where all the instructors taught. Today was the first day of the Complex Compound Magic course and their instructor was Kindle, the renown Wizard/Witch who suffered a stunning defeat by George a few semesters ago. She was smart and talented, but never let anything go.

"Now, here we are again my little fledglings. I'm sure you all remember me. I am Kindle Raventower, and I am here to teach complex combination spells to you. I'm sure you're all ready to experience higher-level magic so let me begin without the usual warnings. We have such a small semester that I won't allow myself speak a single peep about the dangers of casting spells. I'm sure you're all sick of hearing it as I know that I am sick of saying it. If you're in this class you know full well how dangerous casting can be, from an opponent," stopping and looking directly at George, "and from yourself most of all," looking at an older woman who had scorched all of her hair off. She didn't suffer any burns but lost all her hair trying to cast ember which was a low-level fire spell. She smiled back coyly; she looked better without her fuzzy red hair.

"Now then. You are all familiar with the regular combination magic am I correct? You must all know that magic will cancel each other out if they're combined with their weakest element. You will learn today that so-called truth is not true! You can combine any magic, but combining weaker elements to their counterparts are the hardest combination spells to execute. They're most formidable as well. We have no time to loose, and since warming up is still key to performing the more powerful spells we will practice basic combo magic. Now lets begin!"

The course was much different than the other courses taught. Kindle paid no attention to the long speeches about the dangers of casting or the long history of how the spells came about. She did however have such an acute knowledge of casting that she quickly went through the processes of casting so quickly most of the students couldn't memorize it. She had to repeat, but always telling the students that learning a spell just by watching it was the easiest and most effective way to learn a spell, even if you don't get it right, because you might discover a whole new spell. She cast basic combo magic, which at her level went quickly by. Some of the lesser students still had a hard time casting combo magic, but Kindle didn't harp on about their progress. She said that she was once one of the students who had difficulty doing combo spells as well. She spent the first part of the morning portion just warming up. The second half was teaching the basic of the complex combos. The spell "Shattered Crest" was a spell that used the same neutral defensive spell called Crest in a powerful offensive move. First you cast Crest, but before the spell could be finished you had to burst through the center of the crest with your fist and shatter the crest. Once you did that you had to act very quickly before the crest shards faded out. The purpose was using the crest shards as offensive weapons, which were extremely hard and sharp. The only problem was that the spell crest couldn't be cast again until the shards faded out. Crest was one of the most useful defensive spells and could withstand a lot of damage. Immediately she cast crest and shoved her fist straight through the middle and the whole crest shatter and immediately she cast the second part of the spell known as Telekinesis, which then moved the shards towards her target. The usual dummy which was used in all the exercises which usually represented a demon was shot down with such accuracy and clean cut that it was a pile of shards of itself by the time Kindle was done with them.

"The only problem with this course is that some of you may die." Said Kindle when she finished.

"I don't mean to threaten you, but it is a serious fact that most people can't handle this type of magic. The worst part is that you're your worst enemy. This spell I have just taught you has been known to impale the caster. If you're exceedingly good at telekinesis you have a higher chance of NOT being cut, but if you're not good at it…when you break the Crest you risk flinging a shard straight into your face, neck, chest, or abdomen. Last year a girl sliced off two of her fingers because she wasn't careful. I hope you all paid close attention to telekinesis," and immediately she cast another Shattered Crest.

Willow wasn't scared because Telekinesis was one of the most favorite spells. She mastered it early on and was the only neutral based spell she knew how to use with full confidence.

Throughout the day Kindle taught the students various spells always giving some grizzly tale of who lost what when. She was fearless as most of the student put it. She showed them without any restraint the extent of the spells being taught. She knew these spells like the back of her hand and could use them in any, which way she pleased. They were toys to her. None of the students cast a single spell that day.

The following day, they were required to cast every spell in consecutive order. Only George was able to do the task without having to be reminded, and the spells were exceedingly difficult to cast from just watching it one time. Kindle stood back and let him cast with a smile on her face, realizing how foolish her tactics were when she faced off with him so many months ago. She had recovered from his painful injury to her, which she brushed off as nothing but a scratch but she couldn't sleep the following nights because of the pain. She knew she had been defeated fair and square by a student nearly fifteen years her junior. The reason was because she underestimated him. He was twenty five years old and had out of the entire bunch of students a purpose for being there. The others were there simply for the title of being a Mage, but he had a purpose to prove to himself and to prove to his father. George was a rather tragic case, but looking at him now you knew he was destined to do something great. She felt it deep within her heart that she would end up hearing about him again, through some battle he fought in or a fame of some sort. He cast each spell, clumsily as he did, but with such vigor and determination that the short comings of incorrect stance couldn't hold him back. The tricky spell known as Fire Storm which Victoria's great grandfather created was up next. Kindle stood back thinking about how he might cast the spell with his limited knowledge of complex combos. She had neglected to properly cast the spell in the teaching of it preferring her way of divide and conquer tactics, but as she was able to cast the spell with exceeding speed the spell was much harder to cast. Kindle knew she was testing the boy seeing if he really was worth her time.

Soon George was already setting up on the field standing in the midst of the court. Holding his fists forward he began casts, swirling his arms around his body focusing on creating the flames that were required for Fire Storm, but also trying to focus on the wind based column of air that created the spells deadliness. Soon he had a raging funnel of wind surrounding him, and immediately Kindle felt an awful sinking feeling in her stomach. She feared she may have set him up for failure and that he'd cast the spell while he was still inside the funnel. If that happened a raging tunnel of flames that would literally cook the unfortunate person caught in the middle. She had not taught him to cast the spell this way and even she wouldn't be as ballsy as to create Fire Storm while she stood in the middle of it. She shot out to the field intending to stop him from casting the spell was too late when the flames then shot from the ground around the funnel and the funnel sucking up the flames blazed up the column. It was a beautifully cast spell, but Kindle knew she had to stop it, with him still inside. Immediately she cast the famously powerful Ice Storm that named similarly but was a completely different kind of spell. It was useful to cancel out flames, which was the real danger of Fire Storm. Soon the sky darkened and a violent flurry of ice particles rained down from the cloud phantoms, which were sucked up into the Fire Storm. She kept pouring the ice into the funnel but the funnel burned on and on. She realized that he had cast the spell at its highest level, which could last up to a day at most. The spell was especially powerful at this stage and could withstand all kinds of magic since the real core of the spell was based in the funnel of wind. If you kept throwing more magic at it you would create an extremely powerful combo spell. Soon Kindle began to notice after pouring as much of the ice particles in it to cancel out the flames that the ice particles were now being flung off the tunnel and into the dummy's standing not that far away. The ice particles sliced up the dummies and chipped pieces off. They were soon reduced to nothing as the ice particles began to crust together and form large ice shards. The Fire Storm raged on and Kindle knew George had to get out of there. She then using her better knowledge of magic and skill cast hover like he did and went head first into the Fire Storm to retrieve him. She found that it was a lot more difficult with the ice shards flying extremely fast around the funnel.

She had received a multitude of cuts and bruises from the oncoming barrage of ice and fire, but she had done it. Within the center of the Fire Storm stood George still casting the spell as he could best, forcing the tornado of fire and ice into F-3 category. She was astonished to see him perfectly unharmed and he completely oblivious to what she had been doing immediately began down casting the spell reducing it to a mild breeze within a few moments. She never in her life was so frightened that she had sent this kid to his graze, but her astonishment of his perfect casting of the spell was greater. Looking out from his enclosed space and seeing the damage he did on the field was also very surprising to him. Even the ground floor of the court was chipped away at, and the large stone slabs were skewed in the direction of the funnel. She stood back realizing that this kid was not just a mere Mage, but was so become a highly developed Wizard or Witch with the correct teaching. She asked him how he could cast the spell while standing inside it. And he related to her matter-of-factly that funnels are simple and that if you stand in the center of it with the funnel right above your head you can exist perfectly safe in the core. He didn't even notice the ice particles until he down cast. She was astonished and the look of her sheer surprise was on her face the rest of the day. He completed his tasks and mastered a spell she took years to master, but not only could he cast it exceedingly well, but could do things she didn't know were possible with it. George's form of the Fire Storm was not only an effective offensive spell, but because of the velocity of the tunnel's wind it was an effective defensive spell as well. The only way to actually reach the caster was to go head first into the raging funnel of magic. She had quite stupidly given the storm more power by adding ice particles. This was one of the few spells she realized that could use more than one element of magic and those ones were particularly rare. She realized how simple the spell was. This kid was a prodigy. The rest of the casting wasn't nearly as interesting as this one, though Willow and Victoria did put on a good show, they couldn't compete with George's funnel.

The day wore on and soon the final hour of class came about. Kindle standing quite stiffly looking over her students said, "Good job everyone! You all did so well; you make me proud to be your teacher. Now go ahead and enjoy your evenings! I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning." And class was thus dismissed.

Willow, Victoria and George went off together towards the city center. There Willow noticed that the fountain had been replaced and there were a set of crewmen fixing the piping. She thought back to man in black and she had that same sinking feeling in her stomach. She said her goodbyes seeing as Victoria had to go home as soon as she got off and George lived out of the city limits and it would be quite advantageous to use the rest of fee hour given to begin on his farm work. He left the city, and as she looked at him go, she noticed that the guards had reduced their patrols and there wasn't a checkpoint at the exits. She thought, _did they catch the man in black?_ And she went back to her lodging pondering whether or not they caught him. She very much wished to ask the guards whether or not, but fearing that she might be implicated as a spy of some sort she decided against it. She was the only person to see the intruder that early morning aside from the guards. She had her doubts but decided that they wouldn't just reduce their patrols if he were still on the loose. But how did they catch him? He looked particularly able to escape easily and did look menacing. She had doubts and couldn't find rest that night. She woke up late the next morning.

Classes came quite easily and efficiently. Learning was a breeze for all the students with Kindle's no-nonsensical attitude but passing up all the boring and strenuous procedures. She obviously knew her art well and had such confidence that just by watching her the students gained a new sense of work ethic. She cast easily and was as light as a feather, her spells bounding off the tips of her fingers, incinerating the dummies and leaving huge scorch marks on the field. She was extraordinarily powerful, by far the best caster any of the students had seen up to this point in each of their lives. George, Victoria, and Willow excelled with her teachings and she knew that these three would be a formidable trio if you got in their way. She obviously knew that they had some connection with each other by how they all looked at each other when she taught a hard skill. She could see very competitive students as well as very friendly and nice people. They were her perfect students she thought. Though she did keep an eye out for the student that had bester her when she first began her tests last quarter; Joseph. She usually looked over the class of students and had a hard time locating Joseph. He was very easily recognizable, yet she found that it was hard to spot him, and soon began to realize he would most likely be suited to becoming a shadow witch. The title of a Shadow Witch is where most of the stereotypes of witches come from, but speaking from a purely intellectual and philosophical approach to a Shadow Witch, the requirements to get a Shadow Witch Certificate was terribly difficult. But not without its benefits, Shadow witches were masters at the art of camouflage, shadows, and dark magic. Obviously their greatest threats were Holy Witches, but Holy witches were usually only employed as requirements to certain security forces and personal body guards. The position of a Holy Witch was just as hard to attain, but Holy based magic's were less used as with priests and crusaders who already had the most impressive forms of holy magic. Not that Holy Witches couldn't learn the skills priests and crusaders had, their requirements for their basic operations were best suited for their specific class; it was difficult. Holy Witches were rarities. The reason why Kindle thought Joseph would be quite good at it is that he had an uncanny knack for being shrouded in shadows and was difficult to spot just by being near him. This type of hue around him was best suited for Shadow Witches. Kindle pulled him aside after class one day to talk to him specifically about his skills.

The same day Victoria, Willow and George were strolling around Geffen since Kindle had yet again let out class very early. They had already learned the majority of all her teaching within such a short amount of time and with such efficiency she often let them go early while she kept the others who needed more training. Kindle obviously was a very devoted instructor.

"What do you want to do for the next few hours?" asked Victoria.

"I think we should hang out in the East Field. I hear that there is a parade of some sort or celebration there today. If we hurry we could catch the beginning ceremonies." Said Willow, having learned after staying nearly eleven months in Geffen most of its doings and events.

"Yeah, George can come with us this time, since we were let out so early." Said Victoria looking at George. George had his hands in his pockets and was walked silently off to the side, "He doesn't have to be to the farm until six tonight, so he can spend at least a few hours with us." He smiled at her, and she smiled back wrapping her arms around theirs and pulling them close, "Hurry lets go!" and they walked down North Avenue of Geffen.

Back at the Academy Joseph thanked Kindle very much for her suggestions. He didn't even know that there were specific majors for each type of Wizard or Witch. Kindle took a little time to explain each of them to him, and he quite agreed with her that a Shadow Witch Certificate would be the best suited for his style of combat and casting abilities. He was a relatively slow caster, but that could be combated with his use of invisibility cloak and a sound-deafening spell he used to reduce the noise of him moving about. Plus he was relatively nimble as he was and was strong enough to withstand being hit with a few spells. He smiled at her just when suddenly a loud explosion burst through the Eastern Wall of the Academy grounds.

"Did you hear that?" said Willow questioningly looking back towards the city as they had left the large East Gate.

"Hear what?" said Victoria.

"I heard it too." Said George looking rather cold and serious.

"I just heard a loud boom coming from the city. Do you think it could be something serious?"

"I don't know…" Victoria's happy outgoing look was fading and a more concerned look passed over her face.

"I think we should check it out just in case." Said George taking Victoria's arm.

"I don't know, I'm sure its nothing, perhaps a mechanical accident, you know they're building new houses over in the Southern District."

"That didn't sound like machinery." Said Willow and began walking back to the East Gate.

"Let's go check it out," George let go of Victoria's arm and trotted up to Willow.

"Who are you?" shouted Kindle as she confronted the dark shadow within the ash and dust of the explosion. She was in combat position which no one ever saw her in.

Suddenly from the cloud of smoke, came a flurry of black shadow phantoms, which nearly hit Kindle, but she quickly blocked with Quest that was a holy based shield. It was very effective in protecting against shadow spells. She returning the favor cast Phoenix, which was a very strong fire, based cast that sent huge bursts of black-red flames into the cloud of dust. The spell was a fire-shadow based spell, and the Man in Black easily deflected it. He began running towards the Great Library of the Mage Academy. Soon the Geffen Guards came onto the scene, and several of the personal guards of the Mage Academy came onto the field. Kindle tried virulently to stop the Man in Black, knowing that her best defense was to attack from afar as opposed to hand-to-hand combat. Soon she cast Hover, the same kind Joseph did when he fought her and she was flying across the battle field casting large area of effect spells which the Man in Black either dodged or cast a spell of his own to deflect her efforts. Heaven's Rain, which was firewater based spell, which cast a wide net of fire over a large area where anything in its path would be hit. The Geffen Guards soon realized that this was the same Man in Black as the one who destroyed the fountain in the middle of the center square of Geffen. They were already calling back-up as the Man in Black nearly reached the western wall of the Great Library of the Mage Academy.

Then out of seemingly nowhere came a Wizard Guard. The Man in Black stood still for a moment, before deciding his course of action and the Wizard Guard began casting at terribly high speed very low level spells but with such volume of casts none could miss their mark. The Man in Black easily dodged many of them but had to stop and defend himself which put him in a tight spot with the large booming clouds overhead forming the rain of Kindles cast. The spell was a very powerful and effective spell but it took a little while to cast accurately. Then another Wizard Guard came from the inside of the Academy and quickly began casting against the Man in Black who was now performing extremely difficult acrobatic moves and gestures to dodge the Wizard's attacks.

Geffen had two major Libraries, which had significant value, the Great Library of the Mage Academy, and the Wizard Tower Collection that included a huge library and artifact collection. Any one of these sources had a lot of knowledge in them, and each was highly defended. Soon five Wizard Guards were on the field battling the Man in Black who was now not only dodging, but casting against the Wizard Guards. Soon the Geffen Royal Guard was on the scene who were outfitted with special armor that could withstand much magic and headed out onto the field. Soon the firewater came raining down from the sky and the entire field lit up with flames. The Wizard Guards quickly defended themselves, and the Geffen Royal Guard were relatively unaffected by it, their armor could withstand temperatures up to five hundred degrees. The Man in Black however had to retreat since his armor, which was a black cape that hid his identity, would easily burn away and reveal him. He reluctantly retreated casting an ice-based spell that covered his body and for those few vital seconds saved him from the direct hits of the firewater. He rushed off the field and into the same crater he created. Soon Kindle down cast her spell and the field was still alight with flames. The other Wizard Guards soon put out the flames and secured the area. The Guards chased the Man in Black, but soon lost track. The Man in Black from what Kindle could tell was a very well versed and athletic Wizard with extensive knowledge in Shadow spells. Unlike a Shadow Witch a Shadow Wizard was more adept in powerful spells, while the Witch counterpart were more useful in sneaky spells and not direct battle. That was one of the major differences between Witches and Wizards. Wizards were the epitome of magic prowess and could take on any other class with a high chance of winning if they kept their distance. The Witch however was more useful in irregular combat, which allowed them to indirectly hit their opponents. The Witch used a highly developed sense of surroundings as well as a highly developed skill Rolodex of stealth spells. They were hard to catch, but from what Kindle could tell, the Man in Black used spells primarily used for direct combat and had a limited use of deflecting spells and stealth skill. He was very adept in dodging which made him very hard to hit, but he was still just a Wizard, she thought. She dusting herself off from the dust went to make sure the students she had made it to safety. The rest of the day was reduced to an investigation and the whole Academy would be shut down for a few days at least for the Geffen Guards to conduct a thorough search and investigation.

Willow, Victoria, and George before they even entered the East Gate were shut out when the sirens went off the entire city went on lockdown since the fountain escapade a few days earlier. Plus the fact that the Mage Academy was hit was a significant threat. It had been the talk of the town several years earlier that Geffen was a city that had secrets that not even Kind Tristan knew about. They were thought to be located in their vast Libraries though it was all gossip and nothing came of it though there was a lot of speculation. Soon the Gates were opened and all the displaced citizens who had decided to go to the festivities outside in the East Field of Geffen were allowed back in. It was only a few hours but that was enough to allow everyone to know that something serious was brewing.

Immediately Willow, Victoria, and George came back to the Academy. They were told that classes were closed for the next few days and that they were not allowed into the Academy until the forensic investigation was completed. They each parted their ways and went home reluctantly.

That night, Willow stayed up looking out onto the center square where the rebuilt fountain was. It was glistening in the bright moonlight. She sighed realizing all her efforts had to be put on hold until the Academy was secured and rebuilt. The Geffen Guards refused to tell them exactly what happened, but she had already been formulating in her mind the real reason. It was the Man in Black, she knew it. She had sensed it when she heard the first blast the day prior. She felt the hairs on her neck stand up as she began to realize that she knew with complete certainty it was he. She thought long and hard the reason why she had been given this ability and wondered as to whom the stranger might be. He was a spell-caster but of his specific specialty she was unsure of. The swiftness of his casts told her that he had to be a Wizard of some sort, but she had never seen any kind of magic user that excelled in deception and blinding spells. She ponders a while before growing tired and falling asleep in her bed. Victoria hadn't come over that night since the city was on high alert.

The following day Willow awoke to the sound of sirens. The City had yet again been breached. She lay in fear as she heard the sounds of the guards rushing underneath her window. They were searching every house in the inner circle of the city. She knew she was going to be requested to open her doors and allow them to search the place. She pulled on a nightgown and waited patiently at the end of her bed before she heard a guard knock on her door.

She opened the door to see a Geffen Royal Guard and his greetings. He told her without much hesitation about that they were searching for an intruder who had been seen running towards the center of the city. She knew that it had to be the Man in Black, but before she could say anything else he came in and began looking around. He secured the room and rushed out before she could do anything. The door hung ajar, and she reluctantly closed it. She began to realize the severity of the situation. There was a high class Wizard on the loose in Geffen and not even the City of Magic's Guards who were most well equipped to deal with magic users had been able to track down this guy. She felt that same shiver and tried to go back to bed, but she couldn't. The rumbling of the Guards all over the inner circle kept her awake, and the even though the sirens had stopped she knew the city was on High Alert. The City would be locked down until dawn at least.

She turned in her bed and looked at the colorless wall, hearing the city wake up. She after a few minutes fell asleep from fatigue.

The morning came sooner than anticipated and she woke as if something had startled her. Nothing but the chirping of some birds outside her window could be heard. The city was already moving and she had slept in late.

She quickly got up and got ready, putting on the same old Apprentice Mage boots. She got outside and went to the market where most of the gossip flew.

Upon reaching the Merchant Square she noticed that barely any merchants were there, even Gerard and his sons were missing. She then took a look at the West Gates which was the nearest to the Merchant Square and saw that they were locked and several guards were patrolling the area. She then noticed a commotion where large crowds of people at the far end of town were gathering. She headed that way.

Upon reaching the crowd she heard people shouting and ranting to the city officials who were on top of a platform. The morning had just begun but there was a huge volley of people there. She began to listen to what exactly this was.

"I'm sorry, but we cannot allow this intruder to escape the city grounds. This intruder must be stopped at all costs."

"BUT CAN'T JUST BE CAGED LIKE ANIMALS" someone in the crowd shouted.

"YEAH, YOU AND THE OTHER 'OFFICIALS' CAN'T JUST SHUT DOWN GEFFEN, WE HAVE BUSINESSES THAT ARE LOOSING MONEY BECAUSE OF THIS!" another shouted.

"OPEN THE GATES!" another.

"YEAH!"

"I cannot allow the gates to be opened. This intruder has been spotted several times throughout this morning and we are on the brink of finding him. Just be patient and we will allow access as soon as the intruder is caught."

The crowd was getting rowdy and unruly, when seemingly out of no where came the same woman Willow had saw at the celebration parade who was looking at her. She still had on the odd clothing she couldn't quite recognize.

"Listen people!" the woman said over the crowd, and barely anyone had heeded her words, before she holding a wand waved it over the crowd and her voice thundered across Geffen.

"Citizens of Geffen!" she said clearly and loudly over the entire crowd of people.

"We are going to fix this situation. All you have to do is wait, take the day off, and we will keep your safety and the city's wellbeing first and foremost. This is for the safety of the city and all her citizens. You must realize that an unlicensed caster is running about trying to infiltrate the cities' most prized possessions. The Great Library of the Mage Academy has been attacked, and early this morning the intruder had attempted the Wizard Tower Collections." And she pointed behind her towards the huge hole where a blast went off in the side of the Wizard Tower. It was being rebuilt as they spoke, "Don't worry my fellow citizens, everything will be taken care of. This Board of Geffen has your best interests at hand, your safety is all we are caring about now. The City Gate will be reopened when the intruder has been caught. If anyone has seen the intruder you must report it to the authorities and we will see that the caster is caught. When he is, we will open the gates" and she descended the podium and the crowd began up again. She drifted out of sight, and the crowd seemed a little quieted by what had been said. Until that point the reason why the city was closed off was being withheld but because of the words from the woman they had begun to realize the severity of the situation. Soon the city officials were exiting the platform and the crowd began chanting, "OPEN THE GATES" the Geffen Guards were holding a line of defense until the officials had left the area.

Willow soon saw that Victoria was among the crowd. Running up to her, she said, "Who do you think the intruder could be?"

"I don't know." Said Victoria giving Willow a hug, and the realization of who this person could be settled into their minds as they watched the crowd chant.

"Let's go." Said Victoria.

"Alright."

They had left the center square and went to a local café where they liked to visit all the time. Upon entering they immediately noticed the supplies of the café were running desperately low, all of the fruits and a majority of the coffee beans the café kept on display were dwindling terribly low. They ordered a few iced teas and sat on the patio under a large parasol.

They didn't say anything for a while, both contemplating who in the world the intruder could be. Willow and Victoria were both terribly good at thinking deep thoughts and finding the answers to difficult questions, but the idea of thinking who could possibly be attempting to infiltrate the most prized possessions of Geffen City would be a hard task to name the individual. Not only that, the type of information the Great Library and the Tower Collections were vast and very important. They both were glad that the guards were able to able to hold of the intruder. The Library and the Collection held vast knowledge of spells, history, and specific texts that had significant value. If you were to say get a hold of an artifact, it could sell easily for more than a million zeny. Not only that some of the ancient texts were written by age old Sages of the First Order which contained some of the most powerful spells in the entire world. There was a lot on the line, and the defenses of the city were terrible to deal with. The intruder had picked specific moments to attempt, which were the easiest to gain access, but each time he had been repelled by the powerful Wizard Guards. The Wizard Guards were veterans of magic, most of them had been military-war veterans and were extremely capable of casting high damage magic. The ones who were guarding the Great Library had been new recruits and even though they had an advantage over the Man in Black they were severely lacking in teamwork which is why Kindle was barely able to hold him off before the Geffen Guards came. How had the Man in Black known that at that specific hour that the Great Library was at its weakest? He obviously failed in his attempt and tried the Wizard Tower where he failed as well. Who could this masked intruder be? The day wore on and Willow and Victoria pondered the entire time. At noon they came to a conclusion.

"I've been thinking," they both began.

"I think," Victoria asserted herself, "that we should find the intruder ourselves."

"I know…" said Willow rather reluctantly, "But how could we?"

"We first have to realize that the Man in Black is hiding nearly all day and that at night that is when he attacks."

"Yes, but we'd have to be there on the scene before he struck."

"Well, there are only a few more places he could attempt to infiltrate. He's tried the Great Library, last night he tried the Wizard Tower, and the last logical place he could try today would be…"she paused, and began to think. Suddenly she struck the idea and said, "City Hall!"

"Why there?"

"Because. The City Hall has an infrastructure that even though it's closed off, links itself up to the Great Library, Wizard Tower, and all the Gates. If the intruder wanted to get to anyone of those places he'd have to simple go into the City Hall." She stopped and began to ponder again, "Yes! You see, the man is trying to spread the Geffen Guards thin. That way when he does attack it'll give him enough time to get what he wants. Think about it, what other than a bunch of old books does the Great Library offer?

"Spell books and knowledge of ancient history?"

"Yes, and what does the Wizard Collection hold?"

"Ancient relics and powerful weapons?"

"If I were an intruder, what would be the most valuable thing I could steal?"

"An ancient relic I guess?"

"Wrong, those relics are something special, but their worth is only so much. A book containing ancient history is old news, but an ancient spell book would catch quite a hefty sum if sold. Not to mention that those spells have been restricted from being taught by the Board. If he got his hands on one of them and it somehow found its way into an enemy of Midgard, you can imagine how terrible that would be. The attacks on the Great Library and the Wizard Tower are but distractions to pull the majority of the Geffen Guards away from City Hall where the most security is. That way when he does strike again the Guards will have beefed up their men and patrols of the exterior of the Wizard Tower and the Mage Academy that when he strikes they won't realize until its too late. Plus the infrastructure of Geffen leads to the interior of each of the Mage Academy and Wizard Tower. With a proper disguise he could easily pass for a student/wizard/or guard. If he gets past at leas the first layer of security he only has to sneak by the second to get to the last defense. With a surprise attack he could easily overcome it."

Willow sat back realizing that Victoria had such knowledge over the city that gave her a clear advantage. She realized how far ahead she had been thinking than what she thought. She realized that they had to tell the officials of the situation before they make a mistake and create ruin for Midgard.

"Let's go!" Willow said and jumped from her chair heading straight to the City Hall. Victoria was running close behind her.

Suddenly Willow felt something and heard a loud blast coming from City Hall.

_Dammit! We're too late!_ She thought to herself and ran quicker.

The front façade of the City Hall was in ruins and all around the area there were guards lying face down in a pool of their own blood. Willow near about fell over when she saw this, and looked up towards the huge crater where the front doors of the building once were. The spell that had taken down the barrier that protected the building must have been at least a class eight spell telling them that the caster was no ordinary Wizard. They rushed forward, and not even thinking that they could in fact be killed if they opposed the intruder. Over the rubble, both of them climbed and reached the inner hallway the Man in Black blasted through. They looked down the corridor and saw that a trail of black liquid leading off in one direction. They decided to follow it.

Soon they were upon another loud blast and this time there were able to see the Man in Black casting it before it shuddered the entire building. He was standing in the courtroom and blasted a hole straight into the ground. He quickly jumped in through the hole and was gone from sight.

"We have to go after him!" shouted Willow and Victoria who pulled her down and told her, "This guy is a high class Wizard! If you even get hit by one of his spells he could obliterate you!"

"But we can't just let him start a war."

"I know, but we have to wait for the other wizards and guards. We can't take him on by ourselves."

"I don't care, he has to be stopped!" and Willow tore her arm from Victoria's grip and ran up to the hole and jumped in.

"Willow!" was all that she heard before the darkness swallowed her up.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Dusk was crimson red.

Willow stood at the end of a very long hall. She couldn't recognize anything, and the area was pitch black. She couldn't see a thing, but felt her way along the walls towards the sounds of loud blasts. Suddenly at the end of the long hall she saw light from the flames coming from a threshold. She crept up as quietly as she could.

Upon peering into the large room, she saw the Man in Black standing at a large Gate. This was most likely the gate, which led to the other corridors. She stood back and saw him casting high level magic trying to break the barrier. He was trying as hard as he could, but the barrier was strong. She saw him cast such a volume of skills that she hadn't recognized but could tell how terribly they were if they were used on a person. The Barrier was weakening, and there was a large crack where he focused the brunt force of all his attacks.

Willow sat back against the wall in the hall and decided whether or not she should confront him. He was very quick and could easily overcome her in sheer power. Even if she used several shields his casts were strong enough to blast her and the shield back. She decided that because of what Victoria said, she couldn't idly sit by why this masked intruder tried to start a war.

Growing up in Prontera, and having a mother as a barista she heard a lot of talk, much rumor. There were often threats of an impending doom, which Willow was always afraid of. This doom would take her family away from her, her friends, her classmates; everything she knew and she couldn't let this man be the result of such a war. She knew from her grandmother's old rants about the old War between Schwartzwald Republic and the Midgard Kingdom. She told them how all of her sons, a total of four had went to fight in the grand war and never came back. Her mother was just a girl and had little to no memory of it. Willow was closer to her grandmother than her mother and revered her with much respect that amazingly her mother didn't. Her mother would always laugh at her telling Willow that she was losing her mind. Michele was her name, and she was very old and had a lot to say, but because she did, most people didn't really listen to her. She was after all just a low-class citizen who saw more than her worth. Willow paid much attention to her and when she died, Willow went into a deep depression.

Pulling herself together she came into the open and confronted the intruder.

"HEY YOU! STOP!" shouted Willow across the large open area where the intruder was casting. He was about fifty percent through the barrier and it was getting weaker and weaker with every cast. Immediately the man turned and saw Willow with great surprise. She forming the basic stance of the dualist she said with much conviction, "Stop now, or I will stop you!" she said warily unsure of herself. Her voice broke a few times and she began welling up with tears as she remembered the state of her grandmother on her deathbed. She was emotional disturbed and was going to use the force of her pent-up anger at her mother who barely cared anything for her own mother till the day she died at this intruder. The Man in Black stood back, and brushed his cloak aside revealing a black-steel mask over his face. No one had ever confronted him in a dual, and he was more than ready to wipe the floor with this fledgling Mage. He chuckled as he began to form into the basic stance, which was a necessity for any dual that each dualist forms the same stance at the beginning of the dual. He was quite amused that a child would confront him, when he had easily escaped some of the above average casters of Geffen. But he suddenly saw that she would be no pushover and noticed her eyes focus intently on him, and her uncanny movements became very formal and strict that even he himself felt a pang of fear. _Never underestimate them, _he thought to himself.

The battle began and Willow immediately cast the basic of all fire spells called Fire Bolt. Through the stale air of the chamber the flames came rushing toward the Man in Black and he easily dodged the bolts, which hit the barrier behind him. She soon began on a whole other set of skills and began casting quite quickly various spells from all the teachings she was taught from the Mage Academy. She cast wind based magic, fire, water, earth, holy and shadow, with the exception of neutral. She wasn't very good at neutral and if she used it he could easily see her weakness and use it to his advantage. She was a quick casting Mage that made it difficult for him to cast a heavy damage spell, which would obliterate her if he made one. He instead spent his time avoiding the target-based magic she cast where most of the spells actually hit the barrier. He began to realize his advantage of his standing and tried letting her cast more powerful spells which would help him in his efforts.

She cast everything she thought that could hit him and subdue him for a moment where she could cast a paralyze spell. He was insanely quick on his feet and dodged nearly ninety-percent of her casts and the other ten he countered with equal casts. She was a Fledgling, he thought to himself, but she was very quick for her age. He knew at once that she was semi-dangerous based purely on the quickness of her casts, which for a girl of her age she looked about twelve-years-old. He thought back to his youth when he first began casting and he was around twenty-eight. She was a precocious little girl and if he didn't take her seriously she could very easily wound him. He began to take her a little more seriously and began casting quick spells back at her. He didn't want to kill her, but if she didn't stop he would. The time was running out, before the Geffen Guards realized that the City Hall had been hit.

She cast virulently and vigorously and nearly hit him once; he was too quick for her. She realized that she'd have to get him with an area-based spell that would make it hard for him to run. The problem was that almost all area of effect spells took a longer time to cast and if she tried to cast one on him he'd have a clear shot at her, plus he was returning fire. She dodged the hits and they ricocheted off into the hall behind her. Her best chance was to actual hit him with something, something painful that would make him stop for a few moments, then she could cast an area-of-effect and make it more easier for her to subdue him with Paralysis. Paralysis was a neutral based skill, which she learned at the very beginning of the neutral-based class and it was very effective for subduing for a short period of time. What it did was make the target see and feel things that weren't really there. The spell would make it hard for him to dodge and she could subdue him with another spell called Frost Diver, which froze the body in a berg of ice. She didn't want to kill him, because if she did, which she didn't think she could, she would loose the reason why he was doing this. If she lost that connection there'd be a small chance of the commanding parties of this intruder to stop. They'd send a better more equipped intruder. She couldn't let that happen and began focusing very intently on his movements, the placement of his feet and how he dodged.

After a few more moments of casting and seeing him dodge she realized that he was not only a Wizard but also a skilled rogue or assassin; movements were swift and silent, she couldn't even hear him. She realized the severity of the situation as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. They sent a Wizard/Assassin? The time that it would take to gain adequate knowledge of each profession would take at least two decades to fully develop technique and be as skilled as he now was. This was not just an errand for a small ruling party. More and more, much to her dismay, everything that Victoria had said had played out perfectly. She cast which much velocity.

The Man in Black was excelling at avoiding direct hits but as his endurance ran on he slowly became sloppy and bits and pieces of his clothing were being singed by her spells. _How long can this kid cast? It's been like five-minutes straight! _He thought to himself, panting hard.

She was getting tired and her spells became weaker with every cast but she had to catch this intruder. She cast and cast and cast, but each spell hit nothing but air. They both were fatiguing, and the Man in Black realized he had to put a stop to this one way or another. He reasoned in his mind whether or not to kill the girl, and thought about his when suddenly she cast a fire based spell that hit him directly in the face.

_BAM! _She thought as she had learned his technique of dodging quickly and faux-cast a spell that he dodged but put force into a quick speed fire spell, which hit him dead on, in the head. She knew she hadn't a millisecond to waste and began casting Billow, which took about two seconds to cast. The Man in Black recoiled and fell to his knees as the burning fire had heated up the black-steel mask and his face was burning underneath. He pulled it from his face and took a deep breath and saw her at the far end of the chamber just finishing up a cast he didn't recognize. Then he realized she saw his face. He jumped for his cloak that was lying off to the side not that far from him, and then felt something behind him. He barely looked for a second when the huge billow burst behind him sending him flying into the wall. _Shit!_

He recoiled and found the cloak not that far from him and put in on with haste. This had to end and he decided in that split second of the cloak wrapping around him that he would kill her. The whole area of the Chamber was filled with the blasts of the Billows but Willow couldn't see the Man in Black anymore. She knew that one of the billows had him hit, but aside from that she couldn't tell since her vision was obstructed from the billows random activation. She then thought to herself, he had exceptional knowledge of Shadow based spells, which means he can easily hide. She then began looking for any shadows in the chamber when she looked up and saw how tall the chambers ceilings were. It was near pitch-black at the very top and realized he probably had escaped up there. The only bad thing about Billows was that it didn't have a very high altitude of activation; it wouldn't reach up that far. She realized how terrible her selection of spell was. He could be hiding up there and be casting a spell as she thought or he could be hiding somewhere among the billows on the field of battle. She didn't have time to choose and she immediately cast the Invisibility Cloak and disappeared among the Billows. She ran straight toward the Gate Barrier, and realized that it was an ethereal based magic that had no particular weakness. She had to repair it anyway she could. Soon she heard a terrible noise as a huge section of the ceiling came crashing down upon the field where she was once standing and saw out of the corner of her eye his cloak deep in the shadows of the Chamber. Billows would soon run out and the area would be open. She had to think quickly, repair the Barrier, cast another area-of-effect, or try to find the intruder. She decided that she had to find the intruder. She allowed the Billows to die out and waited in silence for the area to quiet down.

She didn't hear anything. She knew that if this assassin was good he would let her make the first move, and then he'd strike. She then realized that if she waited long enough the Geffen Guards would come and the intruder would have to retreat again. But she couldn't let him run away again. She had to block the exits, she realized. The Guards could get through the exits in time but she couldn't let the intruder escape. She thought through all the spells she had learned that could bring down the exit quickly and not expose her.

Then she thought about the crater that the Man in Black had created to force the rubble onto her local. The crater had created large cracks in the walls and with a few specifically located spells; she could bring that whole side of the wall down upon the exit. It wouldn't be hard and the walls were barely standing as it was. She had to direct it, but before she could do that she had to create a distraction. She then thought back to watch Joseph dual with Kindle. He had cast a spell that created a rustling where Kindle focused her spells and out of the blue he struck. What was the spell that he used?

Then she realized how simple his trick was! She smiled her invisible smile.

The Man in Black was sitting deep within the shadows of the ceiling with a floating spell. It made it hard for him to cast but allowed him to keep perfect invisibility. The Billows had died out and there was no trace of the little girl. She either had run when she cast the spell for help or she was still in the room waiting for him to reveal himself. She was smart, so she wouldn't have run. The look in her eyes was so determined that he couldn't remember when he saw such ambition. He realized that in order to completely stop her he would have to kill her.

A few moments passed as Willow gathered her courage to create the diversion when out of nowhere she heard Victoria calling her name. _No! _she thought to herself and a sinking feeling in her stomach pressured herself to act.

Her mind kicked into high-speed operation and she decided within seconds her course of action. She cast.

The Man in Black heard tiny pops and saw the entire south-facing wall of the chamber literally crumble in front of his eyes. He realized what had happened, and looked down to see where the casts were coming from, and saw her at once. She was on the western side of the Chamber near the Barrier casting with fierce determination.

Before she cast she could see Victoria running in the corridor. If she didn't block the exit now that very moment she risked crushing Victoria under the rubble, and if she waited too long they'd both be trapped. Victoria was a powerful caster but if the Man in Black could catch her off guard he'd easily kill her. She in that split moment cast the tiny bursts of magic in the barely standing wall over the only exit in the chamber.

Because Willow began casting her invisibility cloak began to fade as the focus of her spells were intently being charged at the specificity of her casts and soon she was exposed. She knew she had to close the exit, but had to move quickly before the Man in Black could attack her. By now she knew that he'd already be casting a high damage spell that could kill her if she didn't move.

In a leap of faith she cast Hover and shoved herself forward from her standing position barely having cast five seconds and felt a burst of air from behind her. She looked back and saw a huge crater where she once was, smoldering with ashes from the smelted stone floor. She began running and began casting as fast as she could against the wall. The Wall amazingly was strong and didn't come down as quickly as she had hoped but with a few more she'd bring it down soon.

She saw Victoria's face just before the entire wall shuddered and crashed over the exit.

The Man in Black emerged from his shadows and came flying down to Willow intent to end her life that very instant. He knew what she was trying to do and he would only be pending his imminent victory.

She turned and saw him coming down, casting Hover right before he reached her, and flew to the other side of the Chamber. He barely missed her, and the shadow-based spell that covered his fists with black ooze hit nothing but air. The spell was particularly painful if the ooze got on you, but it didn't affect the caster.

He sneered at her, she was an exceptional caster and thinker. He knew that she had a lot of intelligence and smarts; she wouldn't be as easy to kill as he had anticipated. But he realized he didn't have to kill her.

Immediately he began casting what are known as ribbon spells. These ribbons spells are high power magic that is easily cast but they use the core of every element to created the most beautiful yet powerful magic. They're particularly useful when doing target-based attacks. The Man in Black had no real care for the beauty of the casts, but used them for their sheer usefulness. The caster who created the spells was an ancient princess who was particularly adept in all magic began trying to make what she called "the most beautiful magic imaginable." And she created the Ribbons. The spell was entitled it mainly because the magic when cast correctly looked likes ribbons. The high level magic that she used used the core element and each ribbon was the high maximum of quality of each. They glowed bright, looked beautiful, and yet were extremely dangerous.

Willow was slightly confused for a moment, but realized hit attempt. He was shooting the Ribbons at her, but he aimed them at the Barrier. The Ribbons were exceedingly more difficult to dodge than most of the other spells he tried casting at her, since the Ribbons were slower, but had a large area that they took up and had an awkward movement. They were very powerful and Willow had a hard time dodging them. She knew that all of her protection spells would never be able to hold against these spells and that right now her greatest weakness was her lack of teaching and knowledge. She bit her lip, but tried virulently.

The ribbons crashed into the Barrier with loud thundering blasts. The Chamber shook from the force, and bits and pieces of the walls and ceiling began to crumble. Willow cast back at the Man in Black, but he was too quick for her. She had a hard enough time just missing his hits, but she was able to hit him a few times since the spells took a fraction of a second longer to cast than most. He was sweating, trying to keep himself aloft and casting high-level magic all at the same time. He didn't realize until he actually thought about it, but this was perhaps the most challenging battle he had fought with any other caster. He was very powerful and sent a huge volley of Ribbons towards Willow.

He had pushed her against the wall and she had nowhere to run, the only thing she could do was try to create a barrier for her. She cast Crest, which was the neutral-based magic shield.

The barrier held against the first barrage of attacks, but was severely weakened. She either had to cast another one, run, or dodge the hits.

The Man in Black had an advantage over her, which was his flight, but that gave her more time to dodge his attempts at her. They took longer to reach her, but because they did they had more power in them. Plus he could easily dodge her hits as well. They were evenly matched in this fight, but he was an older caster with more endurance than she; after all she was just a girl of seventeen. She was very fatigued and most of her spells were weakened to the point that if they did hit him, they didn't deal that much damage. She was panting hard, and barely able to avoid his attacks. The Ribbons on the other hand required much energy to form and because of that the Man in Black was fatiguing, he wouldn't be able to keep his flight for very long if he continued to cast as quickly as he was.

Willow didn't have very many places to run to, and often found herself barely avoiding tight spots. She cast when she could, but because the amount of the rubble that had fallen she spent most of her time climbing over rocks and nearly tripping on stones. She didn't know any specific flight spells which put her at an extreme disadvantage. The best thing as he mind began to think of, was to try to force the Man in Black out of the air, but how?

Willow in his sights was an extraordinarily nimble little girl, able to fit into the cracks of the rubble and avoid his attempts. He grew very tired, and even the Ribbons spell was becoming too much for him to cast. He was terribly weak and his flight movements were growing slower and slower. He was operating at max capacity and growing weaker and weaker.

Willow stopped trying to hit him and began strategically hitting various weak points on the ceiling with her casts. She was going to bring him down if it was the last thing she was going to do.

The Man in Black realized her casts were very weak and that he could deter his attacks directly onto the Barrier. The Barrier by now was nearly completely destroyed. He had to cast at least five or six strong spells before it fell.

Willow worked hard and soon noticed his attacks were focusing completely on the Barrier. She knew it was severely weakened and that she had to bring the ceiling down before that happened. She cast every known spell she could to try to damage it enough.

It broke, nearly at the same time. The ceiling came crashing down as well as the Barrier that burst into nothingness. The Man in Black fell out of flight and caught himself on the ground, not realizing that the ceiling had just shattered. Willow realized that this was her chance, even if it killed him she had to stop him. She cast paralyze which hit him dead on.

The Man in Black was then afflicted with all sorts of feelings that poked and prodded him which instinctively activated involuntary reactions stopping his movement. He realized at the last moment the large boulder coming straight down upon him.

The boulder hit the ground with a shattering crack and Willow knew she had succeeded in her attempts. But she was exceedingly weak and didn't have much left in her. She relaxed and looked at the Chamber which was their battlefield. Nearly every part of the Chamber was blackened with scorch marks or obliterated with huge craters. All that stood was the completely defenseless Gate. As the noise died away, Willow could hear the sirens going off from the city. She looked back at the exit she had blocked. She didn't know exactly how she was going to get herself out of the place but to actually go through the Gate and find an exit that way. She didn't know what to do, and sat down on a boulder.

She had out smarted the Man in Black and didn't know what to do yet. The officials would most likely come through the Gate, but they might also remove the debris from her attack on the exit. She waited deciding that it would be better if she just let them come find her instead of her searching for them.

She drifted away from her thoughts and nearly began sleeping when she heard the Gate shudder as someone had opened it. She then felt that awful feeling that something bad had happened and she immediately got up. She went as quickly as she could to the Gate, which was now a sliver open, just enough to allow someone through and looked back at the huge boulder that had crushed the Man in Black. She was dumbfounded, she knew she had hit him with her paralyze spell and that the boulder couldn't have missed its target. She then realized that there was a huge hole in the boulder. _He had escaped._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Dawn was soft and welcoming.

Willow woke up to a cool morning. She had slept nearly twenty-four hours. The birds outside her window were chirping merrily. She pulled herself out of the warmth of her bed, feeling her body ache all over. Her attempts at stopping the intruder had been valiant but she failed. She failed, _I failed, _she thought. Nothing could be so terrible to realize.

She pulled her hands through her sandy-brown hair, thinking about the events of the day prior. She had fought the intruder known only as the Man in Black to her, and she had failed in keeping him away from the catacombs of Geffen. He had succeeded and found his way into the Great Library of the Mage Academy. He had stolen several of the most dangerous spells known in Midgard as the scribes had found. The Board banned these spells forthright. They were summoning spells that used magic known only to the demigods. They had tried very hard to keep these scrolls out of the hands of people like the intruder, but he had foiled their attempts, struck when they were at their weakest. And Willow had failed at the last chance to stop him. She felt such a profound feeling of disappointment that she hung her head in shame. She was so close, but at the last moment…

The intruder had blasted his way through the last defense of the Mage Academy and had overcome the Wizard Guards posted within the Library. He had such a profound use of shadow magic that they were weak to his attempts. He easily overpowered them and under-minded their spells. He had found his way into the deepest part of the Library and broke the several charms that protected these summon spells. No one in their lifetime had seen the content of the scrolls, and only a few people knew that the Mage Academy held them. Of course there were all sorts of rumors of what the Library and the Collection held but the specificity of such qualms were never met with confirmation. The City Gates were not closed that day, because they knew he had escaped. The general public was not threatened anymore, but they knew something would come of this and change would soon be entering their lives.

Willow tried to apprehend the specificity of what the intruder had taken, but they prevented her from knowing because she was just a Mage Apprentice. She felt that she must know the degree of her failure, but they simply wouldn't let her know. The information had to be disclosed otherwise it might invoke more attempts at the collections. She fell into the cushions of her bed and lay there thinking. _What did he steal?_

The day wore on and Victoria came knocking in the late afternoon. It was the first time she was able to see Willow since seeing her before the collapse of the corridor. Victoria barely escaped it, because not only did Willow crush the entrance to the Chamber, the blast of her spell casting have created fissures throughout the entire catacomb and the whole hall had collapsed.

"Hey its me! Vicki! Let us in!" said Victoria at the door, pounding on it.

"Hey guys," said Willow rather languidly. She flicked her finger and the lock unhinged itself.

"What happened?" said Vicki as she came up to Willow.

"I couldn't stop him." She turned her head away from Vicki.

"I tried talking the officials but they had nothing to say aside from what they released earlier today. They said that the intruder had left Geffen and that the Gates would all be opened, they reframed from telling what prompted his leaving."

"He" she said slowly, "he stole s-something from the Mage Academy. I don't know what. I was…knocked out for most of it."

"No…" she said holding her hand to her mouth. George sat next to Willow on the bed and gave her a hug. She felt like shit, she knew she had failed, but the worst part of it was that she was helpless to stop him. He was a much more experienced caster, had she been at his level she would've overcome him.

"We have to stop that bastard!" shouted Vicki standing up.

"How?" said George

"I don't know, we have to look for him. If there is one thing that I know about Shadow magic is that it leaves traces behind. It is exceptionally useful in escaping but it had major shortcomings. We have to search for those traces."

"What's the use? We aren't allowed access to the area. I tried my hardest, but I simply couldn't stop him. In the last moments before I was knocked out I went into the Gate that I tried so hard to protect. The Man in Black had somehow escaped the huge boulder that crashed down upon him. I went after him and I nearly caught him but I fell into his trap." She hung her head again.

"You tried hard Will, you stalled him. If it weren't for you we wouldn't know anything about this asshole."

"I know but…I was so close to stopping him and wasn't strong enough to do it."

"Willow," said George, "We will find him and make him return what he's stolen. Those scrolls will only work if he masters the spell. Even if he can cast it a few times it takes a while to master a spell of that magnitude. We still have a chance before its too late. Plus I know those scrolls use a type of magic not common to humans."

Both Willow and Vicki were astonished at what George had said. Not only did he know what had been stolen, but he knew specifics about them.

"Where did you get that information?" said Vicki.

"I…" he paused realizing he gave out too much information and would have to explain him, "I know because I am the son of one of the Schwartzwald Generals who knew such information. My father is Hemingway, the airship captain of the Temeraire Elite. He was in on nearly all of the strategies during the War between Midgard and Schwartz."

"If you what you're saying is right, we haven't a moment to loose. We have to find the trail the intruder left behind."

"But before we can do that we have to gain access to the chamber Willow destroyed."

"That won't be hard," said George.

"Then lets move!" Willow asserted herself and prepared for going out. She had regained much of the vigor she had when she faced off with the Man in Black.

They soon were out onto the streets of Geffen in full gear. The Mage Academy was still closed for the investigation and George knew exactly how to gain access to the Chamber where Willow and the Man in Black had fought.

They headed straight to City Hall, where there were beefed up patrols of Geffen Guards. George intently walked straight up to their commander and chief and said with much conviction, "We need to get access to the Chamber of Souls."

Half-taking the George's request as a joke, "Young man, you realize we cannot allow regular citizens just to waltz into such a restricted area. Not even I can gain access to it! You'll just have to turn around and leave, you are not going to be allowed within."

"I am George Hemingway, my father is the Ambassador Michael Hemingway for the Republic of Schwartzwald and on his title I demand access."

"Why would the son of the Ambassador for the Schwartzwald Republic want access? What business do you have there?"

"My friends and I are going to capture the intruder who made away with the scrolls of the Great Library of the Mage Academy. We need access to investigate the trails of shadow magic that will lead us to his local and we will apprehend the scrolls from him."

"Young man who gave you that information?" the Chief of the Geffen Guards said.

A young female reporter to a local newspaper had come to Geffen to investigate the erratic conduct of the City of Geffen's Officials against a seemingly harmless threat had overheard what George had said.

"Sir George Hemingway!" said the reporter coming closer with a quill and notepad, "Am I correct in saying that the Geffen Royal Guards have been withholding vital information as to the severity of the situation the City of Geffen has found it in? Is the stolen property dangerous?"

Another reporter who had accompanied the first, "If it is dangerous shouldn't the citizens of Midgard know; especially the citizens of Geffen City itself?" directing the question at the Chief of the Royal Guards of Geffen.

George sneered at the Chief.

"I cannot confirm that with you," was the immediate response of the Chief.

"Yes, the stolen property is of level ten magnitude high class magic not even the most studious of scholars in all of Midgard know. They're summoning spells, that if fell into the wrong hands can evoke a war if used improperly."

"Is this true Chief of the Royal Guards?"

"I do not have any idea what this kid is talking about," as the Chief's response.

"No, he does, he is under orders from the Dean of the Wizard Tower to withhold information pertaining to the specifics of the stolen property. He is also restricting access to an underground catacomb which leads to both the Mage Academy's Great Library and the Wizard Tower Collection. The Intruder gained access through the City Hall's Chamber of Souls which up until now has remained a secret from the general public of Midgard."

The reporters were scribbling furiously in their little notepads as the Chief of the Geffen Guards suddenly lost control of the situation. He was posted at this spot and couldn't move because of security's sake. But this kid was blabbing information that he knew very well to be the truth of the matter and if the information were leaked to the newsstands they'd have a very real uprising on their hands. He had to act quickly. He was repulsed by the daring sneer Sir George Hemingway devious smile. He had to shut him up and fast.

Soon a few stand-byers had overheard the commotion and began gathering at the sporadic press release the Chief of the Royal Geffen Guards was giving. More people seemed to flock to his growing crowd. He realized exactly the kind of game 'Sir' George Hemingway was playing. Obviously the kid knew more than was ever released, but he had to shut him up.

George almost began again, right before the Chief spoke up, "I am going to allow Sir George Hemingway—son of Ambassador Michael Hemingway of the Schwartzwald Republic—access to the crime-scene because of his impeccably keen eyes in such matters and is being brought on into the investigation as a consultant." He knew he'd regret telling this to his superiors but he had to do damage control and rephrase and reword what 'Sir' Hemingway had said. There was soon a large crowd growing at the feet of the Chief and several reporters were asking questions all at the same time.

George smiled as he was given the keys to the Chamber of Souls, and looked back at Willow and Vicki who were in pure astonishment at his linguistic skills. He had turned a forthright question into media frenzy.

"How did you learn how to do that?" said Vicki.

"My father thought it was good to know political speech and he taught me at a young age to handle myself well in crowds and speaking publicly."

"That was so cool!"

"The look on his face." Said Willow snickering to her.

They headed to the Chamber.

Several skilled construction casters who were exceptionally adept in such matters were now rebuilding the long corridor that collapsed. They removed debris easily, repaired walls with magic and had the easiest of any profession in repairing facades and structures. Though they were very good, it was taking a while, to the degree of which the battle between Willow and the Man in Black had destroyed the place.

They soon happened upon the Chamber itself. Though it had been extensively repaired since the battle, it was completely unrecognizable. Only Willow could see where the things went back and had an accurate account of where everything went. She shyly walked by the men who were working so hard to repair the damage she inflicted. This repair would easily cost over one million zeny. She couldn't even imagine having that amount, but she walked on trying not to let them know who she was, and there she came into the path of the Gate of Souls.

The reason why this specific gate was called the Gate of Souls was because of the fact that when the catacombs were built underneath the city, an ancient elven city resided there. The Elven Capitol known as Geffen from which the City of Geffen derived its name was huge and expansive, but the city was somehow abandoned. No scholars today knew why since when they first came across it, it had been a pinnacle of the Empire of the Elves power and knowledge. They assumed that something drove them away, and now today only a few select Elves still lived but in the farthest reaches of the known world. This information was widely known, but no one knew exactly what the city looked like, at least not the public status of mind. What actually had happened was when the scholars began excavating the site, the city had been booby-trapped and as they were researching, suddenly the entire city began sinking under ground. The research team that had been sent to excavate were trapped in the city, from which no one had heard anything from the team ever again. But in order to accomplish such a task they'd have to have laid down an expanse foundation that lead at least a few hundred feet into the earth and built a city upon stilts or supporting beams. Then when the trapped was tripped, the entire city would sink into the earth. The Chamber of Souls was one entrance to the city Geffenia, however no one knew how to open the threshold into Geffenia, but it had to deal with the large fountain in the Nexus of the Tunnel system to which the Chamber of Souls that lead to.

The Gate was fastened shut. After some thoughtful thinking, all three of the Mage Apprentices put their powers to use and opened the door. It was insanely heavy and Willow had not the slightest clue how the Man in Black had opened it. They opened it to the smell of a terrible burning smell. The entire interior of the second chamber was pitch black and they had to use the low level spell known as Sight to see. Sight was a fire spell, which ignited a few balls of flames, which lit up an area. The spell was dangerous if you stood around the balls too long but was otherwise harmless, much like a torch. They headed forth and found the second chamber to be huge. This chamber was built by the Midgard Royal Family to protect the Geffenia Fountain, and they used everything in their power to respect the fallen Elven capitol.

Soon Willow had sensed the smoldering black flames left by high-level shadow magic. Black, evil, or shadow magic had specific properties to it. It often relied on the surroundings of the caster to reach perfect form and ability but when it reached it, it would leave behind a nasty smelling black ooze which when left for a little while would catch on fire and smolder before leaving a black scorch mark. By the time they had reached the trail it hadn't been too terribly long since the Man in Black had been there and there was more than enough to start their investigation.

Pulling her hear from her lethargy Willow thought, _perhaps after all I can redeem myself._ They headed further into the black darkness of the Chamber of Geffenia.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Darkness

Willow stood on the threshold of the Geffenia Fountain. It was so large that it filled the entire chamber, stretching from either side. The markings on the fountain's façade were low relief sculptures of elves fighting battles and casting magic. Willow didn't know what these markings meant then out of the blue, Vicki spoke up.

"These markings are of the Last Battle of Geffenia. This event marked the end of the golden age for Elves. When the Capitol of Geffenia fell, the other satellite cities collapsed because of feuds between the elves. This void of a central power was the reason why the Elves Kingdom fell. My father and mother assumed this loss of power was because of ancient knowledge the elves came across that was so enigmatic and powerful it actually drove them insane. The Elder Elves were the strongest and most powerful magic users in their time and made a lot of the spells we now use today."

"Wow," said Willow, running her fingers over the faces and armor of the elves in the heat of battle.

"Now the elves live in hiding, and its not likely they'll ever rise to power again." Said George.

"We should keep moving," said Vicki, lighting the entire room up with Sight.

The entire interior of the chamber had all sorts of markings on the walls, ceiling and even on the floor. Small clear tubes lined the structure and Willow thought of what ran through them even though they were now dry and empty.

They soon came across another three identical gateways heading off in opposite directions. They were now in the Nexus of the Chambers. The first gateway had only three long markings, the second had two, and the third had eight. Vicki, George and Henrietta didn't know what they meant, but they all noticed a foul smell coming from the third. On the ground before the gateway there were large black smoldering scorches. This must have been the path the Man in Black had taken when he first escaped Henrietta. This was now their path.

Each casting their recently learned magic of telekinetic energy pried the gateway open and upon reaching the interior a strong gust of sweet smelling wind burst from the threshold. The scent was not of any plant they could think of, but still had a mildly tart tang to it. It was enticing, and none of them could identify the smell. They cautiously entered the corridor leading down a long flight of stone steps.

"This place is huge," whispered Willow, sounding like a billowing horn in the intensely silent tunnel; not even the sweet smelling breeze made any noise. Looking on the sides of the corridor, Willow could discern that those strange tubes still were lining the walls and floor leading into the chamber they just came from, or visa versa. They began taking their descent into the increasingly dark tunnel. Sight was loosing its brightness the lower they went.

The tunnel ran nearly one hundred meters down and upon reaching the final step, where they were used to hearing the clacking of their own boots upon hard stone, they heard a different and softer sound, much like stepping upon grass. Sight was at this point barely able to light ten feet in front of them. They looked at what they were stepping upon, and noticed that the stone floor was covered with black ivy like vines. George spoke up, "This is a feral type of fungi that mimics different types of plants; its called Noir Spore. It's poisonous and it only grows in pitch black caves and tunnel systems."

The light from Sight was having an effect upon the spore. Where the spore was exposed to the light, the soft firm silky skin of the plant began to loose moisture and began smoldering under the brightness of it, before becoming totally burnt and singed. After a short while the spore turned to dust and imploded under its own weight.

"What causes this kind of spore?" Willow asked.

"This spore is common in most places, it's most likely been able to grow here for years since no one ever comes down here anymore. We should keep moving, there's no telling if this place is booby-trapped," said Vicki.

They walked along, with the silent crunching of the spore under their feet.

"Is this what causes the smell?" asked Willow.

"This has no scent, it has to be something else," said George.

They came across a large pillar soon enough, and their fireballs couldn't reach the top, meaning this chamber was very large. Willow immediately becoming frustrated with their limited sight, cast a flurry of Sparks—another low level fire spell but can deal a decent amount of damage when used right—and shot them off into the distance; lighting up the entire area of her aim. They could see for a little while, before each spark died off and she cast again.

They noticed that the entire floor was covered with the spores and they began dying off under the bright light. Soon several other pillars could be seen and Vicki being a useful Mage began putting posts of low level holy magic which lasted much longer than those of Willow's fire spells but were a lot less brighter just to lead them back to the staircase from which they came.

They soon could see a spiraling staircase that led high into the dark abyss above them. It was very large and had the spore covering the entirety of it, however the spore on it looked like new growth as compared with the spore they had been walking upon.

"Lets light this on fire," said Vicki, before shooting a burst of fireballs onto the black steel. Immediately the black vines caught fire and the entire staircase went up in flames for a brief moment before dying out. When it was entirely lit up, the majority of the chamber could be seen and Willow noted the huge space it must have occupied. She tried imagining where they were under Geffen, and it had occurred to her that they must be under the Mage Academy.

"I wonder where we'll come out," said George as they began ascending the steel stairs: their boots making a loud clanking noise with each step.

It took a moment, but they had soon reached the top and at the top there was a large oval cap, which obstructed their path. Willow could see more scorch marks upon the edges of the oval gate. Using their combined powers again they moved it up and slid it to the side. Immediately the same smell that they had encountered before burst upon them but now was highly concentrated. Each of them felt lightheaded after inhaling a full breath of it.

"This is too strong," said Vicki, pulling a handkerchief from her bag and wrapping it around her head over her nose. The other two followed suit. They emerged from the darkness of the Hollow Chamber and they found themselves standing in one of the old collections of the Mage Academy. They knew what specific building they were in now, but they had never been in it. It was the Old Collections building which only the faculty of the Academy could have access to and the other High Mage Guards. The collections were housed in a very large and expansive old mansion, which had marble floors and deep dark mahogany wood furniture with old red rugs. The collection was housed in a beautiful gallery space with thick velvet curtains and high ceilings. They were located in the West Wing of the Old Collections and nothing but the large oval gate was in the same room, and an old rug, which it hid under. They began walking around ready for attack, but it was unlikely that the Man in Black was still there. The area most likely had been searched prior to their arrival, but there could be no telling with a high level shadow mage. They were masters of hiding in shadows, and as they began looking around the old mansion, there were dozens of places to hide. They walked across the foyer and into the living space where a large fireplace stood off to the far left and opposite a large piano. The East wing was the entrance to the Old Collections, but the entire mansion was still in living conditions and had all the formalities of a regular mansion with several living spaces, bedrooms, bathrooms, and other necessary rooms all of which now went unused and served as a mausoleum of the old family which used to live there. It seemed of no interest to search the rest of the house when all of the importance of it was located in the East Wing. They headed straight for it.

Upon entering the East Wing Corridor, they noticed that a great many of the rugs and curtains were removed and sitting in a pile off to the side of the entrance of the East Wing. This was most likely because of the fact that they had searched it prior to their arrival. They opened the door and a stronger gust of the sweet smelling scent engulfed them. The smell seemed to be much stronger the closer they got to their intended target and soon the handkerchief wasn't enough to keep away their light-headedness.

"I'm getting tired of this smell," said Willow and soon opened one of the large windows. It was nighttime and the view outside was dark and she could barely see anything. Of course the Old Mansion was enclosed with its own barrier wall and the only ones allowed into it at night were the guards, which have since been posted on the outside since all entry had been restricted by the Dean of the Mage Academy. Soon the smell died down, with Willow using basic wind magic to guide the smell outside. They entered the inner chamber of the East Wing and upon reaching it; they found a scorch mark dead center in it. The collections behind the scorch mark were all rifled through and most of the priceless ancient texts were lying scattered across the floor. They being their was highly illegal since they had gained unauthorized access and also because they could be destroying forensic evidence by simply walking on the ground. However Willow didn't care, since it was her who had let the Man in Black escape from her clutches. She examined the scorch mark, which was the target of their coming there. They all began to examine the scorch mark. This was of significant importance because determining the amount of remains of the black scorch could determine how much magic he used to teleport; which would then tell them how far he teleported to. Also the shape of the scorch would tell them which direction he traveled to. It was the only lead that they had, and if they were lucky could catch his trail furthermore. They began their research immediately and George had skillfully brought along a basic alchemy kit.

It was about another hour before the remains of the alchemy could be determined but George was also skilled in basic alchemy before attending the Mage Academy. This of course astounded Willow and Vicki; simply upon the basis that Alchemy was a high level type of study, greater than the basic magic they were learning now. Alchemy needs a basis of chemistry and biochemistry before Alchemy can be conducted, each of which George seemed able and willing to do. It is said that Alchemy is a very expensive type of study while magic is relatively cheap depending on the kind of catalyst used. Alchemy uses kits, mortar and pedestals, potions, herbs, poisons, chemicals, as well as bio matter for its purposes. The probable reason why George didn't pursue a career in Alchemy is because of its price, for the man who worked everyday for his room and board.

The remaining evidence by the magic of Alchemy revealed that the Man in Black had traveled nearly thirty kilometers north into the Mjölnir Mountains: famous for their dangerous monsters and unscalable terrain. They had found what they had been searching for and now all that remained was escape from being found out. They couldn't undo their presence but could however escape prosecution by removing any personal traces of them. They had none of them used any kind of magic traceable and only George used Alchemy which does leave behind a slight trace however the kind that he did use was common and could be found anywhere even on the streets of large cities. They decided they would go back into the chamber they had come from, the Hollow Chamber, which they had found out and escape through a different route. They headed for the oval gate and slowly moved it back to its closed state.

Back inside the pitch-black chamber they began descending the stairs, when they heard a loud thunder from deep within the hollows of the chamber. They didn't know what it was but soon they were leaping three to four steps at a time to reach the bottom of the staircase where they'd have a better chance at escape from this new horror. The thunder didn't sound like a piece of large machinery or the slamming of a gate but rather that of a large beast. Perhaps a guardian they had awoken.

They had reached the bottom, and were in the dark following the light beams that Vicki had left behind toward the staircase which lead back up to the Nexus Chamber. They could hear something moving about in the large chamber and were terribly frightened. Willow was not scared, however she did know that if this beast put here as guardian it probably was a beast from an age where monsters were bigger and a lot more powerful. She knew that if they tried to face off with a beast used to guard the fountain of Geffenia employed by a powerful Elven sorcerer they'd be no match for it. They were sprinting full speed when Vicki at the head of the group noticed the staircase from which they entered the chamber was now sealed off. A large similarly shaped Oval Gate was placed over the tunnel, that they must've missed when came through the first time. Soon they began trying to move it, but it was much larger than the previous gates they had opened, and probably needed a higher type of magic to break through. Since George and Vicki being the weakest of the trio in terms of magic, Willow was tasked with breaking the seal while the other two had to distract whatever was following them. They began their work, and Willow began with a volley of different types of magic to see which had an advantage over the seal. George and Vicki began shooting off volleys of fireballs to see at distance what the beast looked like. They could hear it pretty clearly, but somehow they couldn't see it very well with the sheer amount of pillars the supported the ceilings. They began making tactical maneuvers by casting holy magic beams of light, which reflected off the exposed stone and acted like mirrors. They were able to catch glimpses of the beast but still couldn't get a good look of it, because the pillars were so thick and large that they had to run three or four steps to get around it. Willow soon found the weakness of the gate, which was Shadow Magic and began casting the highest-level magic she knew of the attribute. Each hit the glossy white oval stone creating fractures in the seal that covered it.

Vicki and George were running full speed into the lighted way. In the far end of the deserted chamber they began to see what had been making the noises. The fireballs had just reached the area just beyond the beast revealing a terrifying silhouette. The beast had two monstrous horns protruding from its head, horrifying red eyes and a large furred coat. It was standing straight up and looked directly at them and roared with its piercing voice. George and Vicki realized this wasn't a battle they could win, but they still had to buy time for Willow, who was still chipping away at the seal.

Both looking at each other as if to say, "We may not get out of this one alive." But with determined brows and fierce embers in their eyes they knew it was their only option. They leapt forward into the heat of their flames and began casting the best spells in their knowledge.

Vicki firing off a volley of Billows erupting large gashes in the heavy fur coated the entire beast. George was casting his infamous Fire Storm creating a vortex in the huge chamber pulling the spores from their ground and thrusting them into the raging void. Vicki realizing George's tactic began casting like the instructor had done before a volley of ice based magic, however she knew that once she did she wouldn't be able to communicate with him. She did it however knowing that even a beast of its size would think twice about attacking George with a soon to be typhoon of magic surrounding him. The beast however didn't care in the least and went charging straight into the vortex. It had made a terrible mistake seeing as it got closer and closer to George's position the shards of ice slammed into its size creating huge craters of blood and gore pouring from them. However this only spurred the beast on, and now its eyes glowed fiery red as it lifted up its arm and swung into the very core of the vortex. This was also a terrible idea as when it hit the inner firewall, the flames caught fire to its pelt and engulfed the beast in flames. This made the beast howl in pain, yet it grew angrier. Vicki still casting spells that would help George's vortex saw in the beast's eye vengeful anger and suddenly it spotted her. In her stomach she felt a pinch, the kind of ache that knows that pain is coming. Immediately she turned and ran into the darkness realizing that it was only a matter of time before the beast would realize she was a much easier target to kill than George. However it didn't. It turned back to George's flames and ice and roared a harrowing cry which rung in the empty chamber hitting the high ceilings and the farthest reaches of the chamber. It mustered up its strength still alight with fire and with its beastly claw swung again straight into the core of the vortex, this time knowing that fire and ice would be fighting against it. The beast hit home.

From the flurry of fire and ice, the beast's claw came straight through the engulfing flames and with it George. George was flung from the sheer force of such a frightful swing and flew into the darkness and hitting up against a large pillar. The vortex stopped and the ice and fire died away quite quickly. It however had left its mark upon the old beast, with it still on fire and shards of ice still sticking from its side, the beast howled again in pain. Vicki had in the meanwhile been able to power up a frightful spell she had known her parents to cast. This spell was known as Silver Moon, which was a high-level combo spell of holy magic and wind. This spell was a relatively high damage spell requiring a lot of power-up time. Vicki, seeing George's heroic sacrifice and him hitting the ground with a thump, knew this was the most powerful spell she ever saw cast. She being still an Apprentice Mage still had many more nights of study before ever releasing such a high level cast, but she didn't care. She knew she could cast it since she had watched her mother and father use it in many battles traveling the world with her still at their side. The charge was complete and out of the darkness it struck true.

An intensely bright ray of silver light erupted from one of the darkest corners of the chamber with Vicki releasing it. The ray shot straight and terrifyingly strong; the entire chamber was alight with this power and it struck straight into the back of the beast approaching the area where George had flown. The beast cried out in pain, the terrible cast burning away the flesh of the monster, ripping large chunks of its flesh from its skeleton; the blood splattering against the floor, walls and even the incredibly high ceilings. The ray had hit it's middle back, as it slouched to look for George's corpse. The ray had blasted its way through its rib cage and tore a hole straight through it; the skeleton that was once bright white was now blackened with the heat of the spell, coated in its own ash. The pieces of its flesh lay scattered against the far wall; blood flowed from the point of impact to the far wall where its flesh now laid.

Sparring no time, Vicki quickly ran to the area where George had fell, and found there to be no one there. She looked alerted when he was standing a little way off holding his side, barley leaning against one of the tall pillars.

"I-I think…" holding his side, "I-I t-think I broke a rib." And smiled just before collapsing to the hard stone floor torn with ice and fire.

Quickly running to his side, Vicki pulled him up from his down position, and said with tired words, "We're going to get through this!" and picked him up; her under his arm and him leaning on her. Then suddenly she heard a loud thunder, and immediately her mind went to, _No! Not another one!_

But it wasn't, Willow had just burst through the last fiber of the seal releasing it, and the entire oval capsule shattered into pieces. The seal was a lot stronger than she had thought and looking to her round, she saw Vicki carrying George, his arm over her. Filled with pain in her inner stomach, Willow knew she was only helping him. Yet she couldn't help but feel a sense of detachment for they had defeated the monster together. She felt unworthy and felt betrayed at the fact that she was helping him, she was where she wanted to be!

"It's dead is it?" she said with detest in her voice, trying to aim it at the monster.

"Yes, Vicki saved the day!" said George cheerfully, yet still in much pain. None of them knew too much about healing spells and could do nothing for the pain. He grinned and tried to shake it off, but he had clearly broken more than just a rib, or two. From the looks of it, his shin was fractured in several places, and his left torso was swelling from the broken ribs. It also looked as if his hipbone was shattered as well, since he could barely move it.

"We have to get you to the hospital." Said Vicki, pulling most of his weight.

"Hurry!" she said, as they knew they had to ascend those long steps before being halfway to the exit. They moved at once.


End file.
